U(ZH)N/EARTH

Introduction

We could find the answers to the universe's biggest questions deep underground. Inspiring art can also be created underground.

Deep underground, 1600 meters below , researchers are searching for the answers to the universe's greatest mysteries. As artist in residence at SURF, Prof. Gina Gibson created artworks inspired by the extraordinary environment of the research facility that visualize the search for the invisible. Let yourself be inspired by the fascinating research and the inspiring works and experience the union of art and science.

Ein Teil ihrer Werke wurde im Science Pavilion der UZH im Rahmen einer Ausstellung vom Herbst 2025 bis zum Frühjahr 2026 ausgestellt.

Collaboration

The exhibition was originally created in collaboration with Prof. Penning (UZH), Prof. Gibson (SURF) and the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History.

Introduction
Art and Science
Gina Gibson
SURF
The Physics
Biology / Geology
Vernissage at the Pavilion

Art and Science

Science – 1,600 metres underground

In search of the mysteries of the universe

The Homestake Mine was established in 1876 in what is now South Dakota, USA, in the Black Hills. It was the deepest gold mine in the Western world, reaching depths of up to 2,400 metres. In 2007, the mine was closed and converted into SURF.

SURF is a research facility where, amongst other things, experiments are carried out to investigate dark matter and neutrinos. Deep underground, the experiments are well shielded from natural radioactivity and from particles originating, for example, from the Sun – so-called cosmic radiation. This radiation can otherwise interfere with the sensitive measurements.

Looking for dark matter

There is about five times as much dark matter (DM) in the universe as there is ordinary matter. The exact nature of DM is one of the greatest mysteries in physics today. As DM interacts only very weakly, detectors designed to detect it must be extremely sensitive and therefore located deep underground.

Neutrinos, which are light and also interact very weakly, are also being studied at SURF. Other scientists are producing rare isotopes in a particle accelerator to gain a better understanding of the evolution of the elements, or are studying bacteria that are found only deep underground.

: Zoom; Composition of the present-day universe. © Scientific Visualisation Studio, NASA.

INTERESTING FACT At the Earth’s surface, about one particle of cosmic radiation passes through your hand every second. Deep down in the mine, only one particle reaches you roughly every three months.

Physics and Art – Artist in Residence

Every year, the SURF Artist-in-Residence (AiR) programme offers an artist the opportunity to spend several weeks drawing inspiration from the unique and fascinating facilities and the scientific research carried out there. In 2021, Prof. Gina Gibson was the first artist to take up residence at SURF as an AiR. Some of her works were exhibited at the UZH Science Pavilion from autumn 2025 to spring 2026.

: Zoom; Prof. Gina Gibson underground. © Matt Kapust, Sanford Underground Research Facility.

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Gina Gibson

Gina Gibson is an internationally exhibiting artist and lecturer. She is a professor of graphic design at the Black Hills State University in Spearfish, South Dakota (USA).

In 2019, she was the first 'Artist in Residence (AiR)' at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF). Her work as an AiR was inspired by the site and its unique history, as well as the science that takes place at SURF.

Inspiration and research

To prepare for her time at SURF, Gina Gibson did a great deal of research. She wanted to know as much as possible about the scientific experiments at SURF. She read books on physics, for example, starting with “ABC of Particle Physics”, but also books on Feynman and Hawking.

She also immersed herself in books about the Black Hills and the Native Americans to respect their beliefs and their connection to the place as much as possible.

: Zoom; Inspiration and research

Protective suit, safety goggles, army boots — Protective measures @ SURF

Gina Gibson @ SURF

Gina Gibson spent some time at SURF, both above and below ground. Safety aspects, which are part of the research in the mine, became an essential part of her daily work.

Underground, all SURF employees wear dog tags – identification tags with their name. When working underground, they are used to identify victims in the event of an accident.

Such identification tags are also worn in the military.

The selected art pieces

A few of Gina Gibsons art pieces were selected for the U(ZH)N/EARTH exhibition and displayed at the Science Pavilion UZH. Some of the art pieces are shown in the slide show below.

The Search for Gold

This work of art is about the search for dark matter. What does dark matter look like? How does it behave? Gina Gibson used images of bacteria to mimic patterns seen on a much larger cosmic scale. The blueprint of the Homestake Gold Mine from 1933 and the arrow represent the search for dark matter.
Phases

Many of the artworks in this series deal with the cosmos. Gibson found it interesting that researchers were going so deep underground to study the stars and the origin of the universe. To illustrate the connection, she has combined images of bacteria living deep underground with images from the Hubble telescope, for example.
A Piece of the Puzzle

At the Sanford Lab Homestake Visitor Center, Gina Gibson bought a jigsaw puzzle depicting physicist and chemist Ray Davis Jr. She couldn't let go of the idea of a jigsaw puzzle and was fascinated by the story of Ray Davis Jr. For Gina Gibson, Ray Davis Jr. was the first piece of the puzzle that led to SURF becoming a place for science. Further information on Ray Davis Jr. can be found below under the chapter “SURF”.
Touch

Gibson created this artwork during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. She wanted to create an artwork that celebrates the people at SURF as well as represents our connection to each other and the universe. The colored rings in the artwork are macro images of various cables that Gibson scanned during her time at SURF and incorporated into her art.
Capturing Waves

The motif of mining describes the current search for scientific knowledge. In several works of art, gold turns into copper, symbolizing the transition from the search for gold to the search for knowledge.
Rings

At first glance, used copper gaskets look like waste. However, Gina Gibson often finds beauty in discarded things. This artwork is meant to be viewed from different angles. See what happens when you look at it from the side rather than the front. The light catches different parts of the artwork, allowing different ways of looking at it.

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SURF

The slideshow below shows the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF). SURF is the deepest underground laboratory in the USA, with facilities extending almost 1,600 metres below ground.

The SURF building

SURF is located in the former Homestake Gold Mine, which was decommissioned in 2002. Homestake was the largest and deepest gold mine in the USA. During its 126-year existence, approximately 12 tons (11’623’000 kg) of gold were extracted from the mine.
SURF in the Black Hills

SURF has shifted the mine's focus from profit to scientific discovery. The underground laboratory is located in the Black Hills area, home to the Lakota Nation. This area is sacred to many Native Americans. It is very important to SURF that they respect their culture and traditions.
SURF at sunset

SURF is home to a variety of experiments in different subject areas, such as physics, biology and geology.

The Physics

Search for DM

In direct searches, such as those carried out in experiments like XENON at Gran Sasso or Lux-Zeplin at SURF, scientists look directly for interactions between DM and ordinary matter.

Indirect searches use telescopes on Earth and in space to detect interactions between DM and ordinary matter, and possibly between DM particles themselves. Furthermore, astrophysical observations allow us to observe the effects of dark matter both in the motion of stars and galaxies, and in the early universe, immediately after the Big Bang.

At particle accelerators, provided the energy is sufficient, all possible particles can be produced and detected. Experiments at the LHC at CERN are conducting an intensive search for new particles, which allows conclusions to be drawn about the possible nature of dark matter.

Tank filled with 7 tonnes of liquid xenon — Centerpiece of the LZ experiment. © Sanford Lab.

LUX – Zeplin Experiment (LZ)

At the LZ experiment, researchers are engaged in the direct search for dark matter.

The heart of the experiment is a tank filled with 7 tons of liquid xenon, in which signals from dark matter are searched for. To ensure that this sensitive experiment has as “quiet” an environment as possible, it takes place 1600 meters underground.

On the Earth's surface, the natural radioactive radiation would distort the results.

Prof. Björn Penning | Experimental particle physicist

Björn Penning is an experimental particle physicist and is interested in a wide range of methods to search for dark matter.

He and his research group are trying to directly detect dark matter particles to understand what a large part of our uni-verse is made of. To this end, they are involved in the LUX-Zeplin (LZ) experiment, which is being set up at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF).

Prof. Björn Penning More about Prof. Björn Penning
The Xenon Experiment

What is the Xenon Experiment, and why does it have to be carried out underground?

Xenon plays a crucial role in the search for one of the greatest mysteries of the universe. UZH is also involved in these international experiments: liquid xenon fills the interior of a detector that was developed and built at UZH. The research is being carried out deep underground. You can find out why and how right here above ground.

The original detector can still be seen at the Science Pavilion UZH as part of the Xenon exhibition which can be viewed online.

Xenon exhibition More about Xenon exhibition

Time projection chamber inside water tank — Inside the water tank. © Nick Hubbard/SURF

How does the LZ experiment?

In the LZ experiment, researchers are looking for dark matter particles that are very heavy and only interact weakly with other particles (for example protons). They are called WIMPs (weakly interactive massive particles).

For there to be a certain possibility of interaction, a very large number of particles are needed, which is why liquid xenon, a very heavy element, is used as a medium.

The following would happen when dark matter and a xenon atom would interact:

When a dark matter particle interacts with xenon it creates light (S1) and free electrons.
Thanks to an electric field, the released electrons drift to the top of the tank and produce a second flash of light (S2).

Depending on the mass and type of particle, there are different combinations of these two light signals. WIMPs have a unique signature and can thus be identified.

: © Illustration by Greg Stewart, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Why is LZ underground?

The earth is constantly bombarded by particles from outer space, e.g. from the sun. When these particles collide with atoms in the atmosphere, many new, sometimes very high-energy particles are created - cosmic radiation. These can interfere with the measurements of the sensitive experiment.

: Zoom; SURF Mine. © Sanford Lab.

For this reason, the experiment is 1600 meters below ground: at this depth, only a few particles of cosmic radiation arrive.

In addition, the detector is made of a material with very low natural radiation.

What does LZ have to do with bananas?
The environment of the LZ experiment must be very radiation-pure and well shielded. Even a small piece of a banana (1/750,000) would be measurable as background radiation!

Why bananas?
Bananas contain potassium. Potassium is a very stable element that very rarely undergoes radioactive decay - there is about one decay in a banana in 75 minutes. If such a decay takes place, this could be measured with the sensitive detector.

A suspended copper rod structure with a blue rectangle in the centre — Tesseract experiment

Tesseract – New experiment

Prof. Penning is a founding member of a new type of low-mass dark matter experiment called Tesseract. The experiment is to be installed in the Modane underground laboratory in the Frejus tunnel near Geneva. The experiment complements the LZ experiment, which searches for large masses.

The experiment will detect lattice vibrations caused by the interaction of dark matter particles with the target material. To increase sensitivity, many different target materials are used, e.g. liquid helium or crystals.

Majorana Demonstrator

The Majorana Demonstrator Experiment attempts to get to the bottom of the question of why matter exists in the universe at all.

According to the Big Bang theory, matter and antimatter were created in equal parts from energy in the early universe. When they came together, however, matter and antimatter annihilated and only energy remained. Theoretically, the universe today should therefore only consist of energy.

But today we observe a universe with matter and no antimatter. Some unknown, hidden law of nature must have tipped the scales in favor of matter in the early universe.

Homestake-Experiment

The Homestake experiment is a pioneering experiment in neutrino physics, which was set up in the 1960s under the direction of Ray Davis Jr. and operated until 1994.

With his experiment, Ray Davis Jr. was the first to detect and count solar neutrinos. However, the experiment only counted about a third of the number of neutrinos predicted by the theorists. This became known as the “solar neutrino problem”.

In the 1990s, the result was finally confirmed by underground experiments in Japan and Canada. In 2002, Davis was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work.

Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) will attempt to unravel the secrets of neutrinos and their role in the universe.

DUNE will consist of two neutrino detectors. One detector is located at Fermilab and will record neutrinos in the vicinity of the neutrino source. A second, much larger detector will be installed at the Sanford Underground Research Laboratory in South Dakota and will measure neutrinos at a distance of 1300 km. As neutrinos can pass through the earth almost unhindered, the two detectors do not need to be connected by a tunnel.

Cross-section of the Earth; Fermilab sends neutrinos to SURF via the underground research stations — DUNE connects two research stations. © Dunescience.org.

An important part of the experiment will be the neutrino source “Long Baseline Neutrino Facility”, which produces the neutrinos. However, DUNE can also be used to observe natural neutrinos, e.g. from the sun or supernovas.

Two prototype detectors are located at CERN. The first has been collecting data since September 2018, while the second is still under construction.

Future experiment

Researchers at the University of Zurich are working with colleagues from all over the world to build detectors with even higher sensitivty for future experiments.

: Zoom; Group picture of scientists from the University of Zurich

Biology / Geology

Mikrobiel research

Life thrives even at a depth of 1600 meters: More than 9000 different types of microorganisms can be found in rocks, soil and water. These are being studied by researchers at SURF. The organisms live in so called biofilms in the rock or in the water that accumulates underground.

Microorganisms that can live under extreme conditions are called extremophiles. SURF scientists want to find out how these microorganisms survive, how they breathe and what they eat. To this end, samples are collected from areas that differ in temperature, chemical and geological properties.