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This morning was spent at CERN looking at the Microcosm Exhibition and . 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.
We had visited the Globe on Tuesday and 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 and even the first web server - still with Tim Berner-Lee's notice 'do not switch off'.
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 lunched in the CERN restaurant spotting potential nobel prize winners, counting the number of languages and being seriously impressed at the quality of the food in their ‘fuel zone’. Aidan ate the most and even the staff were impressed with his plateful!
We started out official tour with an introductory talk from a retired Physicist still keen to share his love of Physics and then on the coach and off to CMS, 9km away in France.
Hard hats on and we descended into the CMS cavern 100m below the surface. With the LHC switched off, the CMS equipment was opened for maintenance and again we were able to see inside the detector and could identify the parts used to track and identify particles produced in the collisions. The detector is 15m in diameter and is described as compact! Once again, we were overwhelmed at the scale of the experimental work here in CERN.
We left CERN around 5.30pm and with no time to unwind, it was a quick change before going out to dinner. Some of the ladies wore dresses and there was even a bow tie from one of the gents!
It was a fondue night to end all fondue nights. Cheese fondue to start, meat fondue for the main and chocolate fondue for pudding. There was traditional music, an opportunity to join in playing the Swiss horn. Nicholas, Davie and Mr Swan accepted the challenge with Adam and Andrew joining in with the cowbell performance. There were empty plates and happy faces all round.
After dessert, Mrs Hayes announced the winners of the Geneva treasure hunt and awarded the prizes. In third place and with a round of applause was Adam, Alistair and David. In second place receiving the Standard Model set of fridge magnets was Scott, Morven and Aidan. First prize, the coveted CERN Standard Model Mugs went to Alice, Ridwan and Kye. There was much laughter as we made our way back to the hostel for the last night.
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