Day 2 ATLAS - Particle Accelerator

It is raining in Switzerland and France! I say this as CERN is located slap bang on the border between France and Switzerland.

So very day i wake up in Switzerland and walk ten minutes to France where i have my lectures and courses. Before i leave i will take a between of me half in France and half in Switzerland!

Today we had a visit of ATLAS. This is one of the big particle accelerator which is being built at CERN. It is part of the LHC network. We were given a tour of the site and i got to go underground to see it being all put together!!!!!!!

It is absolutely huge! To give you an idea, the accelerator is about the same height as my school or Borough for those in the know ;-) For those not, think of at least 3 double decker buses stacked on top of each other and you have a rough idea how tall this thing is.The end caps of the accelerator weigh 280 tonnes by themselves! Length wise, it's big enough to at least 5- 6 buses nose to tail. And all to collide to beams of particles which will be no bigger than human hair!!!

(End Cap of ATLAS Experiment)

There's lots more i could say but I think the best way would be for anyone with questions to post them here and i'll try to answer them... or better yet get someone from the site to answer them for you!

The only other thing i'll say is that it again it was another surreal moment. I've seen lots of pictures of accelerators, especially ones with people standing inside them to show how big they are. But to see one in the flesh it takes your breath away.

The sheer gargantuan size of one with it's ordered tangle of wires sticking out around it. You look it at and think, 'How can they put this thing together and make it work?' . 'What happens if one wire goes loose?' It would take them months to find out the slightest problem before being able to sort it out. ( I have been told that to fix any part of the accelerator, it has to be dismantled bit by bit, moved by cranes to the surface, fixed then reassembled again. At the best estimate, this should take at least 5 months!) So who says Physics experiments don't work!!!

Near the entrance tunnel to ATLAS , they have time capsule which consists of a plaque and two CDs with current information about the project and other miscellaneous information. This is not to be opened until 2100. Above it, is a an international warning sign. it's hard to describe so you'll have to wait for the pictures. But my group was asked, 'What does it mean?' The best we could come up with is beware of left luggage... (you'll see what i mean when you see the photos!) apparently, it's to warn of oxygen depletion in the tunnel! (Well at least i know now..... I wonder why they don't do what the old miners do and use budgies.....)

This can happen as the Helium used to cool the accelerator can escape and 'push out' the oxygen. If this happens, we were told to crawl hand and feet to the elevator, (which takes about a minute to reach the surface) as the helium should rise and the oxygen should be at the bottom.

Later on, I had my first trip into town. It was pouring with rain which made it a bit of damp experience:-) It was an interesting experience walking around a city which was totally unfamiliar. There is something exciting about seeing a street for the first or not knowing where to go. At the same time, it was nice to see some familiar shops, (pharmacies, clothes shops and McDonalds! No i haven't succumbed to eating out on McDonald's yet!)

Anyhow, the main reason for me going out was to buy some washing powder. (Underpants must be kept clean if nothing else!) So i walked around for a good hour with no supermarket or any shop in sight which sold washing powder. Eventually i ended spending 13 Swiss Francs on a small box of 'Econowash' .

I later thought to myself... that's about six pounds!!!! Six pounds!!!! My clothes better smell of roses and sunshine afterwards!!!!!