Day 3 - Geneva, Switzerland (CERN)

March 14, 2012

Warning: Contains science content and lots of it!
This blog post is specifically about my visit to CERN. If you want to know about my trip to Geneva then please read my previous blog post.

Oh where shall I start...
I guess the beginning is good. In the beginning there was nothing, nothing at all.
"The whole universe was in a hot dense state..." (everyone sing!)
There were no stars, no atoms, and no structure. Space then began to expand, quickly. Fast forward 14 billion years and here I am.

First two pictures are of me! :) 

Bottom left picture: Largest ring is the LHC (aka Large Hadron Collider). It is 27 km (17 miles) long. It lies deeply in the ground of both France and Switzerland. The smaller ring is the SPS (Super Proton Synchrotron). The SPS is 6.9 km (4 miles) long.
Bottom middle and right: Pictures taken out in front of CERN.

Just some background information, CERN is the worlds largest particle physics research center. It employees over 2,400 people, plus approx. 7,500 outsourced scientist. They represent 608 universities and research facilities and more than 113 nationalities. CERN's funding comes from many countries, and no one country has jurisdiction over CERN. This includes Switzerland and France where CERN is located. Since 1954 CERN's goals were always clear, bringing countries together, regardless of religion or politics, in the name of science!  CERN's mission statement:

• Research: Seeking and finding answers to questions about the Universe
• Technology: Advancing the frontiers of technology
• Collaborating: Bringing nations together through science
• Education: Training the scientists of tomorrow

Now onto my adventure. The first part of the CERN journey begins with a tour I planned 3 months in advance. My tour guide was named Bill Murray (picture below). No joke! I about died when he said that! Too funny! He made it very clear that he was a experimental physicist and not a theoretical one. I just wish everyone would get along. It all goes to the same goal people. The tour was cool. It lasted about 2 hours. First we watched a short video about CERN and then we proceeded to the ATLAS (A Torodial LHC Apparatus) building. ATLAS is one of a few detectors hooked up the the LHC. I did not get to see that actual ATLAS, but for your convience I pulled a picture off the internet for you. This thing is big! The ATLAS building features a mural of the detector. However, the mural is not drawn to scale. Actually the building is not even big enough to draw it to scale. Yep, you read that right. Scale that mural up x1.6 and then you will have the true size of ATLAS. ATLAS is currently looking for the Higgs boson particle. The Higgs boson is more commonly referred by the media as the "god particle". It is speculated to be found by the end of this year. I also got to see the actual ATLAS control room. I did not get to go inside, but viewed it through a glass wall (picture below).

And that my friends pretty much sums up the tour. CERN is an extremely large place, but not open to the general public. :( However, there were two exhibitions I was able to check out. Microcosm is the first exhibit. As stated by CERN, "In this exhibition you will explore the mysteries of the universe and discover the massive apparatus used by physicists, the accelerators and detectors, and see how each part works!" This exhibit was rather informative. Here are a few pictures:

Left: Model of ATLAS

Middle: Model of the LHC

Right: UAI Central Detector

The last exhibit was called "Universe of Particles" and it was held in the Globe. As explained by CERN, Particle like "...interactive kiosk illustrating CERN's quest for knowledge and recounting the international cooperation and technological advances which underpin this incredible research venture." The touch screen kiosk offered games and vast amounts of information at your finger tips. Super Cool! There was also a short light show of the Big Bang. Enjoy the pictures:

Okay guys, that sums up my trip to CERN. Sorry if I left you wanting more, but that is how science works. For every one question answered, ten more are asked...

Day 3 - Gevena, Switzerland

March 14, 2012
Had a great flight to Geneva, Switzerland. I was hoping to see the Swiss Alps from the plane, but it was far too foggy. Oh well! I will just watch the Sound of Music again. Made it out of the airport perfectly! They, being Switzerland, even give you a free bus pass to get you to the city. Now how hospitable is that?

The very first thing I did was go to CERN for my tour. For all of my non-science people:
CERN = European Laboratory for Particle Physics
Going here was the sole purpose of this entire trip! Happy Graduation to me! If you have never heard of CERN don't feel bad. I have only become recently familiar with CERN, about a year ago. However insignificant you think one lab maybe, allow me to bullet point somethings that you (yes you!) benefit from on a daily (possibly secondly) basis.

• They invented the World Wide Web. It is the "www" in www.google.com, and everything else! 
• Helped develope the PET scan. Used in hospital for finding cancer. 
• Grid computing (aka The Grid). Think lots and lots and lots of computers. 

I will refrain from going on and on and on, but you get my point. 

Okay, so this is how this blog post is going to work. I am only going to talk about what I did in Geneva, not including CERN. I will give CERN a blog post of its own. It might even need two! Moving on...

After CERN, I found my way into the city no problem. Geneva is very public transportation friendly. The even use the "honor" system for public transportation. No one checks to see if you actually bought a ticket for the bus. Theoretically, you can just get on and off as you please. However, I bought my ticket(s). It was the least I could do for such a beautiful city. I do not know much about Geneva, and did not make plans to see anything but CERN. However, time allowed me the wonderful opportunity of exploring Geneva. I figured it was best for me just to go straight into the center of the city and see what Geneva had to offer. While riding the bus, I looked at a map to see where I needed to get off. All of a sudden I saw a stop named with two very familiar words. It was if the doors opened up and the sun rays came beaming down from the heavens. There it was, the perfect place for me to stop. It was named Bel Air. Once I saw the name, I knew it was destined for me. The only thing I could think of was:

"I whistled for a cab and when it came near the license plate said FRESH and it had dice in the mirror. If anything I can say that this cab was rare, but I thought naw forget it yo homes to Bel-Air."

Thank you Will Smith! :) This place had it all! Shops galore! I managed to wonder into a 5 floored store, similar to a multi-level Dillards in a mall. Though this one was much bigger. It even had a resturant on the top floor. It was a buffet...oh yeah! I have not had a meal since I left the states. Eating has not been a priority since I have been over here. Most days I am lucky to get a sandwich and a drink. It is solely due to time, and my lack thereof. Haha. Here is my view of Geneva from the 5th floor restaurant.
After eating and some browsing in the store, I wander off toward the Jet d'Eau (Water Jet) found on Lake Geneva. Here are pictures:
Next I wanted to see the place where the United Nations meet. Kind of cool! Very big! For security purposes you are not allowed inside unless you have "official" business. I do not know what the deal is the three legged chair in front of the United Nations building, but it sure looks cool! When it comes to this chair, I think Geneva has Texas beat on doing things "bigger". Here are pictures:
After the United Nations my time in Geneva was done, as it was far past time for me to go back to the airport. My final thoughts of the day went something like this...

"Wow Geneva, you really caught me off guard. The peace, beauty, and hospitality were far too much and exceeded my expectations. I could not of asked for anything more. Thank you!"

Here are some more pictures I took while in Geneva:

Day 2 - Barcelona

March 13, 2012
Well let's see...

• I woke up at the butt crack of dawn to catch my plane; I made it. 
• Good flight. I arrived in Barcelona just fine.

At this point I feel very obligated to mention how bad my feet hurt! They are still swollen from yesterdays walk in Paris. (And yes, I do have very good shoes.) They are like kankles swollen. I can feel the pain in every muscle fiber from the knee down. (This might of helped when I took anatomy. It would of been so much easier to learn the muscle system when they are ripping apart in my legs.) Wow-zer! I am limping on both legs. Yeah, go ahead and imagine that. To top it off, I have a blister the size of my right pinky toe, covering my right pinky toe. (i.e. My entire right pinky toe is one big ol' blister.) Why on earth is my spell check saying that pinky is not a word. I suppose they would rather me use phalanges. Really spell check...? Oh yeah, back to Barcelona. My day pretty much went down hill fell off a steep cliff with no parachute from here.

• Spent about 2 wonderful hours in the airport trying to figure out how to get the hell out of there and into Barcelona.
• Got on a bus, ended up in Park Guell. It was stop number one on my list. 

• After Park Guell, I went down the street to find a bus to catch to the next place. 
• Never found a bus, but did however find some ice cream. 

For whatever reason, one of the things I love to do in other countries is to eat their ice cream. It is different every where I go. Flavors are brought out in so many different ways. Yum!

• After about 2 hours of wondering and bus riding, I made it to the next stop La Sagrada Familia. It is a church.

• Next stop, I wanted to go to Casa Batllo. However it was the same ol' story, I could not seem to manage to get there. Barcelona, my fri-enemy, this is not cool. 
• I finally made it, but they charged to get it, and there was a long line. Here are pictures of the outside.

• At this point I am so discouraged, pissed that I can't find my way around, and every so throbbing feet, I threw my hands in the air and said, "I'm DONE with you Barcelona! I'm D-O-N-E." 
• I did not care that still had several hours left, I am going back to the airport.
• Here is me at the airport 4 and a half hour early for my flight. I know I am smiling, but don't let it fool you. I am very tired and very sore. I am just happy to be headed back to Paris. Goodbye Barcelona, you were not all that people claimed you were...