30 students from William Perkin 6th Form enjoyed a fantastic trip to visit CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucéaire) and experience the city of Geneva in Switzerland. Here are some of the highlights enjoyed by the A-level Physicists:
Day 1
An early start with a 6am flight out of Heathrow. Upon arrival in Geneva the students were treated to a walking tour alongside Lake Geneva and around the centre of the city. After sampling the local cuisine the group were taken on a boat trip on the lake taking in some of the historic and beautiful sights along the shoreline. After dinner at the hostel it was an evening of bowling and pool to round off a busy first day.
Day 2
An early start for a morning of physics at CERN. Some started even earlier opting to get up to watch the sunrise over Mont Blanc from the local park.
CERN is the largest physics research facility in Europe and home to the Large Hadron Collider (the largest particle accelerator in the world). Students were given a behind the scenes tour of two areas of CERN, the Data Centre and ATLAS.
The Data Centre is one of the enormous hubs where the huge amount of data produced by the LHC is processed, analysed and stored. So much data is produced by CERN that not very long ago a man called Tim Berners-Lee had to invent the Worldwide Web whilst working at CERN.
ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC Apparatus) is one of the enormous detectors (46m long and 25m high) which is used to analyse the products of the particle collisions which happen at distinct points in the LHC. Particles (most commonly protons) are accelerated to 99.999999% the speed of light and then smashed together in these detectors. This effectively recreates the conditions at the very start of the universe and enables physicists to understand and research the universe at it’s most fundamental level.
The research at CERN is trying to answer questions such as “What is Dark Matter?”, “Where did all the antimatter go?” and “How did the universe begin?”. It has also produced a number of advances as bi-products such as MRI technology, advances in cancer treatments, touchscreen technology and of course the worldwide web.
Following the morning at CERN the group took the tram across the city for a tour of the United Nations. This was a fascinating insight into how the United Nations operates, its history and its purpose. Whilst there the students were even allowed to observe and listen in on a meeting of the Human Rights Council.
Following the UN the group made their way down to cool off on this very hot day for an hour swimming in Lake Geneva at Bains de Paquis, a designated swimming and sunbathing area.
In the evening there was an opportunity to enjoy a traditional Swiss meal of cheese fondue in an old-fashioned Swiss restaurant followed by Euro quarter finals in the Geneva Fan Park.
Day 3
Back to CERN to take in the public exhibitions. Students enjoyed the morning getting hands-on with the interactive exhibits, learning about the particle physics and astrophysics which will be an important part of their Y13 curriculum.
The trip finished up with an ill-timed flight home which clashed with the England Euro quarter final, however thanks to in-flight wifi everybody was able to end the trip with a celebration!
