Hi!

Hi!

Thanks guys!

I'll try to get those pictures on as soon as possible.......

Epilogue

Dear All,

Like all good adventures, there must be an end so that many more adventures can start.

I would like to close this Blog with a few thoughts.

It has been a fantastic and unique experience which i would recommend to anyone who has the opportunity to do something similar.

I cannot say why, or how things worked out as well as they did, except that luck, enthusiasm and a desire to participate in as many things as possible helped. To this last bit of advice, i have to thank my kind American friend. I would also add that not giving up is also essential component for it to work.

More importantly, CERN has left a lasting impression on me, one which makes me wish to be as open, inclusive and sharing as possible when it comes to Physics and teaching Physics.

It is hard to put into words the feelings that can be experienced in knowing that you have been working as a tiny part of a diverse greater whole without losing your individuality. And for those who have been reading this Blog, I hope that you have felt some of the things which i have tried to elucidate in the above.

It has been pleasure and thanks for reading.

Think.

The End

Day 20 The End

I couldn't sleep a wink last night. It means i have been up +24hrs - give or take a couple of hours. I suspect it is the antibiotics which have been working really well so far. I feel much better already.

I was able to go supper in the restaurant yesterday!!! (Thursday night) It happened to be Gron's, (head of our Working Group) birthday too! Happy Birthday!!

I decided to get up and go to the Presentations of the working group regardless of how tired i felt as i knew it would be good to see everyone again and also to see the work that everyone has done.

I was not disappointed.

The volume of info and resources people have come up with was amazing!! We all did good presentations - including me as at the last minute i asked if i could play a small part in our group's presentation by doing the intro. The guys kindly let me do so so thank you!!!

It was really nerve wracking even though i was doing this in front of a group of people whom i knew really well and vice-versa. I was not alone however, as everyone was in the same situation.

My most memorable presentation Rolf's Working Group who did, '50 Mysteries of the Universe'. I will not be forgetting Bosons for a long time!!

Afterwards, we got to meet the two oldest couple who have retired from CERN but are still working there in a voluntary capacity. It was amazing to hear them talk about CERN and the experiments they did as they were both there from the very beginning to the present point. They have seen all the accelerators, big or small being built, tested and put through their paces.

This was then followed by a meeting with the Director General of CERN. It was quite humbling to see how enthusiastic and supportive this gentleman is of the HST programme and i was reminded again, how lucky i am to have to had this opportunity. It is amazing as well, for a guy with so much responsibility to still be so enthusiastic about Science and encouraging young people to take up Science. It is something which i will incorporate into my own ethos.

Later that evening, we had our farewell barbecue and it was lovely. Rolf did all the cooking and whilst he was eating.... i was able to get a spoiler on 'Angels and Demons' movie. I'm keeping quiet for the time being though!!!

It was a lovely way to end the programme and my only regret was that i had to leave early as i knew i had stillto pack and to get-up at 7am the following day.

I was able to say farewells to almost everyone, (apart from those who were having too good a time!!!)and at that point, i think i realised how well we all got along and how i would miss the times i had at CERN. But i left feeling that i would have loads of happy memories and photos to look back upon!!!!

Day 19 Feeling Better

Dear All,

Feeling a lot better now. It never ceases to amaze me, the power of Antibodies and how effective they are. I have something to be thankful to the Biologists for:-)

I'm not quite home and dry yet so hopefully i can get home and get a good couple of days rest before i head off again. (This time further afield to Hong Kong!)

Had a little bit of pasta for dinner but otherwise i have been surviving on ...... shortbread!!! (Or Elven 'lembas' as i will now call it as literally, two bits have kept me going for the better part of a day.) I'm not sure if i should be eating the shortbread as techinically it is made from butter or some diary products. (Which the doctor told me to avoid) Hopefully i don't suffer from averse effects later.

It has also been comforting to have had lots of good wishes from everyone on the course. Thanks guys!!

It is sad to think that my time on this adventure is almost at an end. I'm not sure if i will post tomorrow as it is the day of the Presentations and i have to hand this laptop back to Mick. (Thanks for the long loan of this MacBook, (yes that is how you spell it, it written right in fornt of me below my display!!)

What i will do is i will wait till i get home. I will then finish Day 20 and then also to a Summary.

Till then, lets hope my recovery continues apace and i have a quick and safe journey home.

Why cola is good for you

Dear All,

Have been going through a torrid three days where i was vomiting and my temperature was fluctuating between highs and lows.

Went to the doctor today who diagnosed me with food poisoning. I am currently on antibiotics and hopefully i will be able to fly home in a reasonable condition. Funnily enough, she also recommended that i take as many sips of cola as possible as for some unfathomable reason, it is good for you in these situations!

It is a little bit heartbreaking to have missed out on all of this week's activities but such is the life that we lead. But hey, i got a 4cm needle jabbed into me so that i could be connected to a saline drip!!!!!

The Days That Never Were.....

I have been ill the last two days and sleeping for the most part in my room.

Therefore they are the days that never were..........

Day 15 We Are Sailing, We are sailing...

Dear All,

Have just spent an exhausting day walking around Geneva and going for a sailing trip around the lake.

It has been another glorious day full of really hot sunshine. It is comparable to Hong Kong, without the humidty. I spent a good 5 hours in the sunshine which i regret now as it means my skin feels like it is on fire..... whoops, i guess i won't be venturing out without any sunscreen again:-) Something to pass onto when i return to my proper......

I went sailing today!!!! It was only a one hour cruise around the main parts of lake Geneva but it was fantastic!!!!! Nothing beats standing on deck with the sun shining and a cool breeze blowing through your hair...... it also means i've sailed around Hong Kong Harbour and Sydney Harbour..... the next one will be San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge!!!

Aferwards, we went for a walk along the quayside to the History of Science Museum. (I had Richard and Oceane with me) It was ineresting to see the old Astronomy equipment. I also so a cool experiment with Parabolic Reflectors which i want to repeat at home............

We then met up with Miguel and Agustin who drove us to a little down in France which is next ti Lake Geneva called Yvoire. It was a beautiful French town and the thing that made it beatiful for me was that there were so many flowers and plants growing around the town, on the walls of the houses and in hanging baskets. It made it look really rustic yet beautiful.

We had a quick wander around town before finding a nice restaurant for an evening meal. I had steak and chips, (it is weird but i seem to be eating a lot of that these days:-)) then had a really weird triple chocolate dessert. It was weird has it looked like ice cream but when you eat it, it melts in your mouth as if it had a lot of water in it...... not sure i really liked it.

Dinner conversation was interesting.... Big Brother and Reality TV programmes. I blame on the fact that we are forced to watch it to have something to wind Jedis up with. For hte millionth time.... Pop Idol, BIg Brother and all those other reality programmes are not quality entertainment!!!!

Back home just now and trying to cool down and do some washing.

It is the beginning of the last week of my stay and there is a lot of work still to be done!!!

Day 14 Bastille Day Celebrations

According to my timetable, it is Bastille Day in France today.

I think there are some celebrations planned in CERN altough i haven't seen anything advertised. Last night there were fireworks set off and i managed to hear them rather than see them.

It has been another glorious day with a clear blue sky and brilliant sunshine. It is really strange because the sun seems to get warmer and hotter the later it gets into the afternoon. I don't know why, but i kinda expect it to cool down a little by about 5ish in the afternoon. Consequently, i have spent all my time till 5pm outside getting as much sunshine as possible:-)

It's Saturday today which means i'm having a day off. I spent the day in Geneva doing some exploring as today has been the first day that i've had any time by myself!!!!

Geneva is a really lovely town, (I'm not sure i would really call it a city as it is more like Edinburgh than Glasgow)to explore as the it so clean and friendly. Like most tourist towns, everything is located centrally and the public transport is excellent!!! Clean and punctual, it makes it really easy to navigate even if you happen to get on the wrong bus and get lost;-)

The fact that it has a massive lake next to it also means that despite the intense sunshine, there is always a nice cool breeze to keep you cool. It also gives it a really nice promenade to walk along. (Pictures are forthcoming as usual)

I went to two museums today. The Museum of Art and History and the Museum of the International Red Cross. Both had some really interesting exhibits, and it made me realise just how many naked ladies get drawn for the sake of 'Art'. I am in the wrong job. And no, i didn't take pictures either.

At the museum of the International Red Cross I got to see the original Geneva Covention!!!! Like most things of this ilk, (i.e. Declaration of Arbroath) it was very innocuous and if it had been pointed out to me i would never have given it a second glance.

I then went for a walk around the town of Geneva and it was wonderful. I have not felt such peac and calm for a long time. It was beautiful sitting at bench with an ice cream in hand watching the distant sailing post wander past and feeling the cool breeze brushing past. It is something i will always remember.

FAQ's

Before i forget, i should have the opportunity to speak to the people who gave me lectures on 'Cosmology' and 'What We Hope to Find from the LHC' sometime next week.

So you have one last chance i imagine to ask questions about Dark Matter, Dark Energy, the Big Bang, Higgs, Standard Model etc!

Post them and i'll ask!!!!!!!!!!!

American Happy Hour and Spying Satellites

To finish a glorious day, the American contingent gave us an American Happy Hour!!!

It was great as since it was such a nice day, we were able to have an open air party outside the restaurant. It was just perfect.
Free Drink, free snacks and wonderful company. I'm not sure if it gets better than that.

It was also Ambrose's (teacher from S. Africa) birthday. Happy Birthday!!!! We all sang happy birthday to him and then each nationality also sang it to him in their own language. As this was happening, some random woman came up said it was her birthday as well so we did it all again!!!!

I spent most of my time mingling just eating, drinking, (orange juice and tea since i am a pillar of the community;-)and talking to people. We then had the ipod and speaker set up so i tried my best to play MUSE and some more 'recent' music. Unfortunately, i had to suffer 'Pink', 'U2' and oldies whom i've never even heard off :-)

Zeger, (Dutch teacher) then set-up a pair of binoculars and i got the chance to see Jupiter and it's first three moons!!!!!!! How cool!!!!!! I saw Jupiter with my own eyes. Admittedly it was no more than a bright star but it was still cool. I then stood for ages just staring up into the sky. This only works if the sky is clear without any clouds. I found the longer i looked the more my eyes became adjusted and the more stars that i could see. It was simply breathtaking to see the stars almost 'phase' into existence. (They were always there it was just that my eyes weren't accustomed to seeing them)

Then i saw this star that was moving at what seemed like at constant across the sky. I knew it wasn't a plane as planes have flashing lights..... i wondered if it was a UFO. Then it was pointed out to me that i was actually looking at a Satellite!!!!

A telecommunication satellite!!!!!!!!!! How cool. It's amazing what you can see when you look up at the night sky..........

'The Grid'

As promised from early on, I shall now tell you about 'the Grid'. In a way, i wish Physicists had a greater sense for melodrama and excitment. I would have called 'the Grid' 'The Matrix' instead. Just cause it sounds cooler and is linked with the film of the same name and all that that means:-)

Anyhow, 'the Grid' (TG from now on) isn't a new invention by CERN. You may already be familiar with it in the form of SETI@home. The project where information from SETI is processed on your home computer to help in the search of extraterrestials. 'Google' is also another example of TG although it is a bit difficult to explain. (It is 1am in the morning and coke just doesn't have enough caffeine to keep my mind working fully.)

The difference with TG is that instead of just sending information to individual computers, the aim is to share computing resources in a community. (i.e. It's a bit like a group of farmers sharing each other's tools rather than everyone getting one each of every tool). This should mean that the computing power available to Scientists will be much greater than even a single super computer! (i.e. The whole world will be a massive processor... a bit like Skynet from the Terminator movies:-))

So why the need for incredible computing power? The reason is that the LHC is going to need a lot of processing power to handle and anlayse all the information it is going to receive. It has been estimated that 1% of the whole world's data production in one year will be produced at the LHC.

Another way to say this is that one year's worth of data from the LHC would have to be stored on 20 000 000 CDs. It would require 100,000 of today's PC's to satisfy the CPU power required!

To make TG possible, we must be able to send information from one place to another quickly. Research and developments has meant it is now possible for CERN to send information at speeds of 10 Gigabytes/s!!!! This means it is quicker to send 10 gigabyte of information from CERN to Vancouer quicker than it takes to write it to a hard drive!!! Talk about the world getting smaller.

Of course all of this is still in the theory stages. There has been steps to connect Universities in the same countries together. Links have also been made with computing centres from different continents. However world-wide TG connection is still a while away!!!!!

For more information check these out:-

www.gridcafe.org

www.LHC@home (not sure if this one works... Google it!)

Day 13 The Future's Bright, the Future's Dark Matter....

Dear All,

We had our final lectures on 'Antimatter' and 'What the LHC Will Find'.

In the Antimatter lecture we were given a simplified explanation of how to trap antimatter particles and the experiments that were being done. The one i find interesting is trying to measure the effect of Gravity on Antimatter Hydrogen! I will need to read over the lecture presentation to remind myself of how these things work out.

I was very tired today as i stayed up late after Harry Potter to do a bit of work so my attention span has been very short:-) I don't mind as i'm more of a night person.... unfortunately the rest of the world isn't!!!!!

From the Antimatter lecture we did a quick calculation to show that unfortunately, as the current knowledge levels, Antimatter bombs and Warp drives are theoretically pointless - there is not enough energy released to make it worthwhile, assuming we had easy access to the stuff!

The second lecture has been interesting as it has really convinced me that CERN will find the Higgs particle within the next 3- 4 years! Firstly, the amount of work in terms of calculations and simulations done to find the Higgs particle is startling. If the Standard Model is correct then the calculations based upon the theory has given Particle Physicists a pretty good idea of what to look for to find the Higgs particle.

If the Higgs isn't found there are two possibilities. One could be that the products of a Higgs particle decaying could be a neutral particle, (i.e. a Neutrino) which means it doesn't interact with anything. Therefore they are very nearly undetectable. (These particles are detected indirectly through their decay products)

The second reason is that it doens't exist!!!! If this is the case then there is something fundamentally wrong with the Standard Model and all the work on fundamental particles of the last 50 years will have to be revised!!!!!! We would have to go back to Quantum Mechanics and Relativity to see if we missed something.

However, Michelangelo said that this is highly unlikely as historically, Science hasn't progressed through major collapses in Theory. (i.e. The advent of Relativity and Quantum Mechnics didn't necessarily mean that Netwonian Mechanics is wrong and should be thrown out. We still use Newtonian mechanics) So the signs are good and the next 10 - 20 years will be very exciting for Physics ...... we will hopefully be finding out more about Antimatter, Dark Matter and the Fundamental answers to Nature!

And Before I Go to Bed.......

It was Borough night tonight!!!!

Cheers to all the regulars and have a nice weekend!!!

I hope America and Mexico are proving to be a good holiday. I will demand to see pictures when I get back!!!!!

Harry Potter

I have to give him a mention as who hasn't tapped into the whole Harry Potter phenomenon?

I went to see the film with a small group and it was really good! I enjoyed it more than i thought i would, (The last one didn't really hold my attention and i haven't watched it through to the end.) The best bit was when Charlotte, (Teacher from America) screamed out load when the Dementors appeared first time on screen! It took my by surprise but luckily i didn't spill any popcorn!

This was good a movie although it was a bit odd as i didn't think it had a twist like the the previous ones i have seen.

I loved the themes of Friendships and Familial Love too.

'Rock On' as a friend of mines would say.

:-)

Super Massive Computer Geek!

In the afternoon we were given a tour of the CERN computing services. This was the first time i've actually seen how they store and manage a network server.

It was mega cool!!!!!!!!!!! (Okay, I'm a nerd and i'm proud to admit i get excited by looking at computer hard drives;-))

The key thing about any server is cooling. For CERN, the power needed is between 25 -30 Mega Watts of power! That's like switching on 10,000 light bulbs of a rating of 100W at the same time!
So in this big massive factory room, they have massive fans which help cool the server down. It is pretty noticeable too as when we went to the main Server area, it was really cool. (It has been incredibly hot and sunny today.)

So why all this fuss about computers? Well, to sort through the millions of collisions that they are going to do with the LHC and analyse the results to try and find the Higgs particle, they need - computers! and lots of them.
In fact, they need approximately 1,000,000 times more computing power than they did for their old colliders.

This is where i get a little bit geeky...... i had always thought that a Server was some big network that was controlled by a 'Mother Computer' or 'Mainframe'. Apparently this isn't very efficient and for the new server system they are connecting computers in parallel in 'computer farms'. I'll post some pictures to show you what they are like.

The coolest thing about CERN is that they are a 'Open Lab'. This means they are a bit like the SETI program. Any data they collect from their particle accelerators are passed onto other institutions who do the data processing. They are also quite happy to do research for both Science and Industry. As a result, companies like 'Intel' will give them their latest prototypes - 2 to 3 years before they come onto the market!!!!!! And there is a guy who actually gets to play with them all day and get paid for it!!!!!

At the time of press of this blog, CERN also holds the fastest data transfer from 1 disc to another disc record. The write speed from CERN to a computer in San Jose, California, America, (I hope i got that right!) is 895Mb/s. Um, my hard drive is less than 10% of that! And it takes me a couple of minutes to burn any music CDs. However, I'm not a true computer geek so i'm sure some of you guys will help me put this into context.......

Anyhoots, there is one particular fact that i found interesting, especially for all the Standard Grade pupils. As i mentioned earlier, CERN generates lots of Data which they then pass onto other people to work on. I have mentioned in previous posts that this is done through the Internet. Well, it turns out that all this data transfer is done by.... copper wires!!!! And not optical fibres!!! The reasons are the following, (apologises if i have not got all the technical stuff correct....)

(i) Optical fibres require booster units which effectively slow down the signal and cause the speed of the connection to slow down. (Bear in mind we are talking about 100s of Mb/s!
(ii) Copper wires have a bigger range of frequencies which means you can multipex (I think that means sending lots of different bits of information down the same line) more than optical fibres

This is kinda wierd as i've always told pupils in my Standard Grade course that, 'optical fibres' are the way forward for Telecommunications.....

The other thing is that CERN is one of 24 sites which host a major server for the 'Worldwide Web'. What this means is that if i were to accidently pull some wires out... i could have knocked out the entire internet service for most of Eastern Europe and Russia for half minute before it could be re-routed through other Servers!!!! World domination here i come! The funny thing is that the Server responsible for this is just one tiny cabinent compared to the rows and rows of hard disks used by CERN. ( I have the pictures to prove it too!)

Finally, i was told on our tour that GPS is not really as accurate as it is made out to be. This is because the Military can fiddle with it to mask the true positions of their units. Of course, when they do this, they blame it on a 'software error' or something similar. So if you find you GPS is faulty, this might not be your fault entirely!

The answer to this lies in the European 'Galileo' GPS system. This should not suffer from the same nterference from the military as i believe they don't have any control of it like the current GPS system.

Day 12 Ron Howard and the Antimatter Machine

Phew!

It has been another busy day and there are just not enough hours in the day..... I've had to borrow a couple of hours from Friday to do this! If only i could be a quantum particle.......(Hint look at Quantum tunneling....)

We had a really funny and interesting Lecture by Rolf Landua on Antimatter at CERN. It was really interesting and worth the early start. I'm looking forward to his lecture at 9.15 this morning. (It is Friday!) I won't go into the details except from the following:-

(i) Unfortunately there is no warp drive being developed here
(ii) Research has resulted in the production of Anti-Hydrogen particle
(iii) Ron Howard visited CERN in preparation for the new 'Angels and Demons' movie!!!!

If you go to YouTube and search for, 'Ron Howard at Cern' you will see a clip of him and Rolf, (the guy in the black shirt) being shown around the Antimatter Decelerator lab. Go check it out! Especially the last 20 seconds of the clip!

I also had a another lecture by Michelangelo Mangano about what scientists hope to find using the LHC. This was particularly interesting as it brought together a lot of the things which we have done so far and things started to fall into place. Again, some of the theory was above my understanding but i liked his elucidation of how as scientists, we can ask 'How' questions that are 'easy' to answer, (How does a light bulb work, how do we cool things down) and 'Why' questions which fundamentally we cannot answer unless we truly understand things within a frame work at a fundamental level. (i.e. Why are there two types of electric charge? Why do quarks have three generations of particles)

In the afternoon, i was given a tour of the factory where they produce antimatter! For those who do not know, antimatter is the opposite of matter. The best way is to think of it as matter being an object and antimatter the reflection of that object in a mirror.

When these two collide, they can release immense amounts of energy. (As mentioned in Dan Brown's 'Angels and Demons' and it is also the power source of the Warp Drive in Star Trek!) Now, unfortunately, we are only able to currently produce a small amount of this antimatter. There is still a lot of research to be done which i will hopefully be able to talk more about after the second Antimatter lecture.

However, they are experiments currently set-up to test the application of anti-protons in medical physics to kill cancer cells more effectively....... i may perhaps mention more of this later on.

Did you know?

Did you know that in Brasil they call Limes Lemons????!?!?! I'm going to double check this with Eduardo.....

Here's a funny joke that Thomas, (A teacher from Sweden told me)

What do you get when you have a million, million microphones?

A megaphone - think about it nerdlingers!!!!!!!!! Hahahah!

I managed to catch the end of Gron's lecture on Western Scientific lectures, (I was busy finishing some work for my Working Group) and found his summary fascinating.

From what i could gather he had gone through the development of Western Scientific thought starting from the Greeks who espoused a world view that the world was like an Organism to the Enlightment period which saw the world as Mechanistic - like a mechincal clock to the present day Science which is Complementary. (My apologises if this has come out a bit messy. I will try to get the link from Gron has he has transcripts of his lectures)

My understanding of the last 10 minutes of the lecture is that with the development of Quantum Mechanics in the early 20th Century, the way we should view 'Nature' or the world around us should not be the Enlightment method of logical, deductions or arguments which derive from the idea that the universe is empirical.

We should consider the Quantum Mechanic perspective which says the answer depends on the questions we ask. (i.e. Electron interference - when is an electron a particle or a wave? It depends on how we measure it. - Again i apologise if my arguments are really poor. I refer you to the Feynman's lectures as he gives a brillaint explanation of how electrons can/cannot interfere with each other!)

I think the important thing is that it has given me some food for thought and i will investigate this more...............

Day 11 The Mid-Point

Dear All,

It is unreal to think that this is the mid-point already!!!!

Today has been a bit special as we started work on our working group. It has been a very busy day.

My choice of working group is the 'Bubble chamber' and i have chosen to work on updating the lesson plans and creating worksheets for the lessons. It is proving slower than i thought as there are lots of different perspectives and angles to approach the problem from. It is easy to do what i want but the prespectives offered by my team mates is refreshing and highlight to me the difference in focus that their curriculum has.

In my opinion, i feel that they seem to teach Physics at a much more technical level, although this might be because most of their pupils tend to be from 17 - 19 years old. But the interesting point is that the Physics is the same regardless of the language we speak!

I went to the Microcosm shop today and bought lots of goodies.... for myself. I was going to go the whole hog and kit myself out in all the CERN merchandise that i could find...... but i think the t-shirt, sweater and playing cards are quite enough! I did also buy something else which i will present as a present to my best performing pupil.......maybe:-)

It's funny but it never occurred to me before i left that i might need to cut my fingernails. Consequently i have been walking around like Wolverine..... nice white long fingernails:-) Luckily Eduardo has given me a loan of his very expensive 'Victorix', (the Swiss people who make Swiss Army Knives) nail cutter so i am back to normal now!!!!!!

Tonight will be a long night as i am hoping to do as much of my Lesson Plans as possible. If things go to plan, it should makes things much easier next week. Especially as i want to attend some optional lectures on Astroparticle Physics.

As Bruce Lee once said to me ;-)), 'Be like a sponge! Absorb everything! And throw away what you don't need!'

It's true i tell you.........

Tommorrow will be lectures on Antimatter..... let's hope i learn the secret to Warp Drive technology and Antimatter bombs!!!!!

Congratulations!!!!!!!!

Congratulations to Mr and Mrs V!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They are the proud parents of baby Dominic Michael!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Baby Dominic arrived at 9.02am (BST) on 10th July!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Woo hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Go Mr and Mrs V!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will go to bed now:-)

Muse are Brilliant! WooHoo!!!!

Woo Hooo!!!! Muse are brilliant!!!!!!

Have a look at their website which has all their songs and some of their best videos too!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.muse.mu/index.php

I Want a White Vest! (Spoiler alert!)

I went to see Diehard 4.0 tonight. I will not name my accomplices for fear of embarassing them. Ach ,what the hell, it was Eduardi and Sam who tempted me to miss one of Gron's lectures. (Sorry Gron!!!) It was only an optional lecture:-)

It was a nice treat and it felt good to go out of CERN for a couple of hours. As much as i enjoy being here and being exposed to all the different Physics, it is good to remember that there is more to the world.

Diehard 4.0 was completely bonkers and a brilliant laugh!!! I think John McClane must be the world's greatest Physicist, (Had to slip that in) as he can fire police cars and hit helicopters!!!!!!! I want to be able to do that..... maybe i can try that with my Intermediate 1 class?!?!?! There were so many stupid stunts in it though that it was pure fantasy cinema. (I mean, shooting a bullet through yourself? Dodging missiles from a fighter jet?)

The funniest part was that when we left we forgot where our car was parked!!! As we started looking for it we bumped into one of the lecturers who gave us a lecture on Particle Detectors this morning!!!! She was very nice and helped us look for our car, so thanks Silvia!!!!

Day 10 Bubble, bubble.....

Dear All,

Today we had a couple more lectures on Particle Accelerators, Detectors and Cosmology.

They were all very interesting although i have to admit i was lost a couple of times as some of the things we were introduced to were very complex. Again, the complexity of particle accelerators are astounding and it is no wonder that it takes at least 5 -10 years to design and build!!! I am comforted to know though, that there is a big red button which they can press to stop everything if there are any problems..... it will be interesting to see how Hollywood interprets this for hte Dan Brown, 'Angels and Demons' movie;-)

I still have an opportunity to ask some questions so if there is anything you ish to know, this is your chance. In particular, if you want to know more about Dark Matter and Dark Energy then go for it!!!!

It is weird because before i arrived, i was pretty sceptical about the whole, Higgs Boson and Dark Matter concepts. But having heard some of the evidence for these things i am more willing to accept it. I think the thing which changed my mind most was when Frank Close, said that just because you cannot see something doesn't necessary mean it is not real. We can't see atoms, gravity or the static electrcity but we know they are all there. (I know these arguments can be used for other things but we will not diverge to those places!)

This afternoon we had our first Working Group meeting. I found it useful and it was goodto finally get started on some work which i will hopefully be able to use in my classroom. It is a bit daunting, especially as we have about a week to develop materials. But the fact that i am in a group means that i know there will be good colleagues to back me up.

For information, i chose to work on the Bubble Chamber section of the website. It would be great if people, (you know who you are Jedi!) could look at the website and give me some of their thoughts. Especially as i'm hoping you guys will be using it sometime after the holidays! ;-)) You can find it by doing the following: -

http://teachers.web.cern.ch/teachers/archiv/HST2005/bubble_chambers/BCwebsite/index.htm

Beofre i finish, i feel i should point out that Gron, (who is advising us for our Working Group) gave me a lift to the supermarket in France. This was very kind of him as he still had to prepare some materials for his lecture later this evening.

Thank you Gron!!!!