With the growing coronavirus pandemic, many hospitals throughout the world are facing shortages of ventilators used to help patients breathe. To help combat this problem, CERN, a physics-lab containing the LHC, the world’s largest particle accelerator, is finding and developing models that can serve as placeholders for current ventilators.

This means that patients with mild cases or those who are recovering from the virus can use these ventilators, which gives room for more expensive ventilators to be used for patients with severe cases. The proposed model, dubbed the high-energy physics ventilator (HEV), is able to run on batteries, solar panels, or generators. This enables many hospitals throughout the world with limited resources to use the HEV. The proposed ventilators took inspiration from the gas flow regulators found within particle detectors at the Large Hadron Collider.

In addition to the HEV, CERN is also developing sanitizer gels and masks for local police forces and is also finding ways to utilize its computing powers to find and develop vaccines. Ultimately, this shows how different groups of people from a vast array of fields are working together to fight the growing pandemic.