CERN - Evening 2
This afternoon was spent at CERN looking at the Microcosm Exhibition and the Globe Universe of particles exhibition. This was by way of preparation for the guided tour and gave us great insight to the work being done by thousands of scientists both here and around the world, the engineering challenges of building the infrastructure and assembling the detectors and the benefits to society which are a direct result of this international collaboration.
In the Globe, we were able to see Peter Higgs' famous paper, the first electron cyclotron which we can compare to the accelerators we have now, a spark chamber which reveals cosmic rays - a much more dramatic effect than the cloud chambers we built in the lab at school, and even the first web server - still with Tim Berner-Lee's notice 'do not switch off'.
The most popular exhibit, by far, was the interactive table showing the accelerator chain with pop-ups for more information on each of the experiments.
From the infinitely large to the infinitesimally small, Microcosm gives the key to understanding the secrets of matter. In this exhibition we saw some of the massive apparatus used by physicists to explain the mysteries of the universe. It described the accelerators and detectors showing how each part works!
We have had a taste of what tomorrow has to offer - we are off to France and underground to the CMS experiment!!!
We dined tonight at 'On Y Mange Poulet'. There were some hungry teenagers at the table and only bones were left. It is early to bed as we have an alarm call at 6.30am and breakfast at 7.
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