Destination Switzerland

I have to admit that Geneva was on my list pre physics anyway. This is pretty much due to the beautiful descriptions in Frankenstein but since that book is all about the morals of scientific discovery that counts as physics anyway right?!

I also wanted to visit CERN after reading about it in Angels and Demons a few years ago because it made it all sound extrememly cool! This website kind of disples some of the illusions described in the book but it says nothing about the wind tunnel so that must be true!!
However the main reason for this visit would be the LHC particle accelerator. Protons are collided to investigate the structure of protons and the interactions of quarks etc. This includes the search for the Higgs Boson. coincidentally the most recent sixty symbols video is all about their visit to the LHC and it is really interesting. I mostly love the video because of how happy Professor Copeland looks to be there. However I guess that they don't let just anybody walk around? But I have seen that school trips have been there so I don't really know what happens. But it doesn't matter, I'll be going there when I'm a famous physicist so they will definitely let me in and I have experience of visiting particle accelerators anyway! I suppose I will have to carefully plan my trip to happen when the accelerator is in shut down so that I can get in there...

I love this picture because the person looks so tiny and I have absolutely no idea what all of the things do! Remember when everybody said the LHC was going to make a black hole that would consume the earth? Hahaha!