Escape room profile

HEPscape! – The High Energy Physics escape room

HEPscape! is an immersive escape room inspired by real research at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. Guided through a virtual journey into an LHC experiment, participants solve puzzles, uncover clues, and work together to explore the fundamental building blocks of matter.

See the mission Plan your visit

The Story

The Narrative

HEPscape! is an escape room dedicated to high-energy physics. Born from the passion of scientists involved in the CMS and ATLAS experiments at CERN, the project turns complex ideas into an engaging adventure for all ages. Its mission is to bring particle physics closer to the public through play and discovery. Touring across Italy, HEPscape! has reached thousands of people, offering a unique experience: an interactive and accessible journey into the mysteries of the Large Hadron Collider. The HEPscape! experience starts already outside the room. Visitors are welcomed in the experimental aerea by the facilitator that acts like an experimental area guide, as it happen in the real visit of the experiments at CERN. Since visitors have to enter the experimental cavern, they are asked to wear the helmet! Once entered in the HEPscape! room, visitors are guided through virtual journey at the LHC and will have to tackle and solve puzzles before being allowed to leave the room. Although virtual, the experience at 360°, with projections, sounds, lights e many unexpected surprises. Any element in the room could be useful to find the solution of the games.

Inside the Experience

The core elements of the experience.

Your Role

Step into the role of physicists and solve a series of scientific challenges to uncover how particles are studied and discovered. Working as a team, participants follow clues, interpret data, and complete experiments inspired by real high-energy physics research. Their goal is to progress through the investigation and ultimately reveal the “discovery” hidden within the escape room narrative — mirroring the journey of scientists at the Large Hadron Collider.

Scientific Focus

Visitors will be close to the LHC environment, with videos showing them a real experiment control room, with researchers at CERN that recorded contents in different locations within the experiment areas. The knowledge of the fundamental brick of matters, as well as the discovery of the Higgs boson at the LHC, are the main learning goal of the experience.

Distinctive Features

HEPscape! is a unique opportunity to learn about particle physics in an alternative approach, with a dedicated setup and installation. It is the first escape room devoted to high energy particle physics and it opened the way for collateral projects and replicas not only in Italy, but also in other European cities.

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