CERN Open Days 2013

The ATLAS detector (Google Images, courtesy of ATLAS Experiment/CERN)

Just got back from a massive two days spent exploring CERN (the European Centre for Nuclear Research) in Geneva on the border between Switzerland and France, better known as being the top particle physics research facility in the world and made famous last year by the discovery of the Higgs Boson, which gives more weight to certain modifications to the Standard Model to account for why particles have mass. CERN is currently upgrading its facilities and accelerators so as to enter another phase of experiments at higher energies and speeds and as a result it was opened completely to the general public, who had the opportunity to learn more about the work carried out at this organisation, chat with the scientists and the staff and visit the different premises, all free of charge! This event was also truly a unique opportunity because it occurs only once every 5 or 6 years and it saw over 70,000 visitors some of which came from abroad specifically for this event.  I won't bore you with a long post so here's a summary of some cool stuff I got to experience:

• Rode on a levitating trolley using superconducting magnets
• Operated robotic arms
• Got a photo and autograph on my brochure from the director general of CERN, Rolf Heuer 
• Took a tour of the ATLAS detector, the biggest of all detectors at CERN coming in at a massive 7 storeys high
• Tasted nitrogen strawberry ice cream
• Saw a real life cloud chamber
• Found a road dedicated to my favourite scientist of all time Richard Feynman
• Visited CERN's data centre (they have 10,000 servers!) and Control Centre
• Got my height calculated to the nearest 50 microns (its 1690.11 mm +/- 0.05 mm if you really must know)
• Discussed the standard model, particles moving faster than the speed of light and the latest Higgs developments with scientists and PhD students at CERN.
• Attended several public lectures and site visits to various linear accelerators and labs scattered around the premises.
• Got tons of freebies!

And I didn't even get to see it all!