SCIENTISTS and teachers have created a workshop to make the mysteries behind the Large Hadron Collider more accessible to the visually impaired.

An event will be held at Eden Boys School in Halliwell tomorrow featuring a scale model of the structure at Cern that can be touched by blind or partially sighted students who would otherwise find it difficult to learn about accelerator physics.

It will be the first event of the project, which started when two scientists involved with the collider learnt that visually impaired students found it difficult to learn complex sciences.

Robyn Wilson, a teacher at Bolton Sensory Support Service, has been involved in the initiative and described it as 'exciting'.

"The idea of the project is to get students at school who are blind interested in science and to get them to see that it is a viable career choice for them.

"I teach for the visually impaired and they wanted someone who can work with them to make it more accessible.

"They have developed a 90-minute workshop and they got a scale size model of the proton accelerator, which they can touch and feel around.

"There are four workstations and they will learn about the structure of an atom, how it works and how it makes the proton move faster.

"The point of it is that they are able to touch the model. I am really excited about it because people do things like this especially for blind people.

"It has been designed to be accessible, which is the great thing about it."

There will be about 30 students taking part in two sessions at the Bolton school.

Mrs Watson said: "This is massive. All of the older people who have already gone through the school system have all said they wished there had been something like this when they were at school.

"Even if it just piques their interest, it still makes it really important that something like this can be made accessible."