The fictional SERN of the show is a direct analog of the real life CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (the acronym is from French). As the name implies, it's primarily a European organization. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Large Hadron Collider</a> actually exists and the idea that it could create micro black holes was also <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_of_high-energy_particle_collision_experiments#Micro_black_holes" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">real</a>.
The show takes place in 2010.