The organization behind the Large Hadron Collider has developed a frustrating treasure hunt using LEGOs and Google's Street View technology.

On the border between France and Switzerland, CERN runs the world's largest particle physics laboratory. Typically, this kind of place would be off limits to the public, but CERN recently opened its doors to Google's Street View camera. Now any science nerd can take an unguided tour of the CERN facilities. Plus, as if simply touring a particle physics lab wasn't already geeky enough, CERN's staff also turned the sever room into a LEGO treasure hunt.

"We're pleased to announce our first global scavenger hunt!" said CERN. "Spot three LEGO® figurines using Google's Street View and you'll be entered to win a gift of your choice from our CERN Gift Guide."

CERN's holiday gift guide is chock-full of CERN-branded bric-a-brac for the discerning particle physicist in all of us. But before you can go shopping, you'll need to uncover three LEGO figurines, and send the screen captures [email protected].

CERN has always had a generous philosophy regarding the exchange of information and ideas, so it's not entirely surprising that we're getting a glimpse at the company's inner workings. This was, after all, the birthplace of the World Wide Web.

So, without CERN, we might never have found an efficient method for exchanging cat gifs.

Source: CERN