i am a huge nerd. i love physics. specifically theoretical physics. specifically string theory and the quest to discover a T.O.E. (theory of everything). science today is extremely close to unlocking the secrets of the universe and the place on earth that is making the greatest contribution to this quest is CERN, the european center for nuclear research.
CERN is home to the brand new large hadron collider or LHC - the world’s largest particle accelerator. basically they shoot protons around this 27km long ring buried 100m underground until they reach 99.9% the speed of light (!). then they smash them into each other and observe the results. it was a total dork-dream come true to visit this place, and even though i didn’t get the tour that i had tried to book months in advance (seriously) i still had a great time visiting ‘microcosm’ - this exhibit that explains the history of CERN and what they’re trying to find.
and i got to play with things like this ! :
yep, that’s a geiger counter. this is what it reads when detecting radiation from a watch made with radium in the 1950s. that’s high, btw.
when particles smash together, the various detectors that are set up track the trails and energy emitted by the smaller particles that compose them. protons are made of quarks, for instance, so when two protons collide they emit quarks - and a whole bunch of other interesting things. above is picture of the methods they used to map particle paths in the 70s. basically using a big overhead projector.
here’s a photo of a photo of what that looks like printed. and a physicist (with awesome 70s hair) observing the results (in the 70s).
here is a computer image of one of CERN’s breakthrough discoveries in 1983, when the discovered the particles that make up the weak nuclear force.
particle physics is all about creating equations to explain why things do what they do, and then conducting experiments to see if the assumptions are accurate or not. right now CERN is working to find empirical evidence of the existence of the Higgs Boson, which is this particle that will help prove the existence of multi-dimentionality in our world - the crux of string theory.
this is a model of one of the detectors that’s being used to find the Higgs Boson. pretty, eh?
here’s it from the outside.
CERN has dorky/awesome street names all around it’s massive grounds, like this one!
this is the exterior of ATLAS, which is one of the experiments CERN is using the large hadron collider for.
i think this might just be for show. but it’s awesome, eh!?
more CERN buildings. i don’t know what exactly goes on in these, but it’s fucking rad.
here is an example of the countryside that CERN calls home - the town of meyrin. the LHC is huge and deep, and crosses over the swiss/french border and runs underneath a bunch of farms and houses.
when i return to this place i will make sure to book a guided tour well in advance. fyi - two months is NOT enough notice. but it was still worth the trek - only a short busride outside of geneva. if you like physics, and you’re in geneva, you have no excuse to miss this, folks.
and they sell cool t-shirts with math equations on them. and i bought one.
Tags: CERN, france, geneva, large hadron collider, LHC, meyrin, nuclear research, particle, physics, science, string theory, suisse, switzerland