The universe is on the starting blocks of change….

photo descriptions -
Row 1 - Cern smart car, cooling building with lots of water running through it, entrance sign, interior poster,
Row 2 - CERN cafeteria, plaque in hallway where web was invented, coffee machine, tent buildings,
Row 3 - trunk with 20 wheels to move detector to CERN, observation tour, nice red building, vineyards surrounding CERN,
Row 4 - Sheep at CERN, interior of building, sign for Atlas experiment

This fall in Geneva, Switzerland the world’s biggest scientific experiment, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is about to get started at the international lab called CERN. This experiment may explain why matter is matter. In an earlier blog I discussed our car ride to Geneva, Switzerland to visit CERN. The journey to CERN was magical, fun and peaceful but was only a teaser to what was to come with my visit to CERN. J. always talks about CERN with great fondness and excitement and I have heard quite a few stories over and over again. After years of hearing these stories that have now reached mythical dimensions in my head, I finally arrived with eager anticipation to conduct my own experiment and not only observe but also to participate in a
small way.



The first time I entered CERN, I half expected a parade of bands marching down Blvd. Einstein or at the very least the fanfare of some drummers’ drumming. I only have to guess that these events are in another dimension. However, I could not miss the buzz and the murmur of excitement among the hum of cooling towers and computers – as J. calls it it’s the buzz of a common purpose. The place felt like the anticipation of a baseball game about to begin between the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs. After 20+ years, 10,000+ people working
representing 60+ countries from all the major continents, this Sept. 10th will be the big turn on where protons will be created, smashed and the detectors will pick up their tracks in the search for a particle called the Higgs, and maybe a black hole or two and the ability to study of the quantum affects of gravity and maybe other warped dimensions. On Sept. 10th, the big turn on is being celebrated at parties across the globe. Maybe the Large Hadron Rap (youTube video – very entertaining) will help get a party started in your neck of the woods.



You would hardly suspect that there is a serious scientific experiment going on in these very non-descript office buildings among the sunflower fields, grazing sheep and vineyards. The first clue that something may not be as is it seems is the guarded checkpoint scanning badges of folks in cars, bikes and on – foot and it’s not the border crossing. The hotel we stayed in was in
France so every morning we crossed the border into Switzerland but I found that I was asked for my CERN visitor pass more times than my passport. The streets of the lab’s grounds are creatively named after famous scientists like M. Plank or Fermi or Einstein. The buildings and their names take after minimalism with names like building 40 or building 20. A few buildings have been embellished –like this one with the bike. Some buildings are actually canvas tents that sound like a drum when tapped. Finally I found the drums! Every so often the building’s lawn is graced with blue columns that kids play on. Could it be a contemporary version of the columns found at the Forum in Rome? Nope - These large blue columns are the magnets that act as a kind of leash to guide the electrons around the 27KM of track underground. I can only
assume that they are not working and since they are special orders cannot be returned and henceforth trash turned to art.



Inside these plain white Corbusier type buildings are office spaces that have been loved over the years with yellowing posters of past experiments, maybe a comic or two related about physics, stacks of old hardware, chairs, empty boxes, desks on every wall and whiteboards that one day might just be sold as contemporary art in a Sotheby’s auction with colorful circles and arrows, a
bunch of Greek characters punched up with some Roman numbers. I briefly thought about doing some Jay Walking through the halls and ask a random stranger, “What are the quarks and their names?” as a kind of test that this place was not a Hollywood set. The odds are pretty high that not only could the random stranger name the quarks but they would also be happy to explain the math behind them too. I may have even found that I had tapped the shoulder of a former Nobel Prize winner, I can’t recognize them but others can and it was pointed out to me on several occasions. For example I passed Jack Steinberger while viewing this plaque – “The Halls where the Web was born.”


Yes, the web was born at CERN and there are T-shirts for sale and posters too with this claim to fame. The technology to develop this experiment has been applied to many other fields like medical imaging and the computer industry too. I learned that CERN is in the Guinness Book of World Record for transferring 6GB of data in 1 second from Geneva to Southern, CA.


The more impressive and colorful structures at CERN are underground and these are the detectors. I was very fortunate to arrive the last week they were giving tours of the detectors and able to join one. Some folks will where these little blue radiation monitors the ensure a person is not exposed to too much radition. The tour begins in the detector’s control room. A very impressive space and looks a bit like a newsroom. The inside of the building that had the door to enter the detector is painted in wonderful colors of green and red and orange and blue. Our tour guide entered through a green framed door so that a blue light could scan her iris. She let us in blue door and we had to put on red hard hats. We entered a yellow elevator filled with photos of putting the experiment together. The day we toured the detector they were testing the alarm system which is a bit alarming after learning about the radiation level badges but we were assured it was only a test. Upon exiting the elevator we went through a blue door and entered a very long straight concrete hallway with a green door at the end and then into the detector area. I have to say that I have seen a Discover program about the Atlas detector and numerous other videos but none of those are like experiencing the thing up close and personal. You walk into this gigantic cavity with an enormous metal circular thing that I may have thought to be something to use to travel to the center of the earth. The place is painted in blue, yellow, green and red and there are coils of copper wires, silver wires, black cords, pipes that are in some organized chaos. The thing must be a couple of stories tall and it would not fit in my camera frame. There was a long spider like vehicle at the bottom. Unforgettable!



I asked the tour guide if the painted colors meant anything. She looked a bit puzzled and said she did not think so. I am not sure she gets this question all that often but the colors were impressive to me. I am not sure if that was b/c everything above ground is mostly white or if I had been influenced by visiting the Pompidou Center in Paris. The Pompidou in Paris has a similar color scheme and the colors on the pipes actually indicate their purpose. No one I talked too seems to know why they chose the colors they did. But I am still searching for that person who does know.



Another mystery I am trying to solve is why a large observation tour was built. It marks the border between France and Switzerland within CERN grounds. In fact you can dine in either France or Switzerland depending one which cafeteria you choose. The cafeteria in France is surrounded by vineyards of course. The CERN cafeterias are almost talked about as much as the detector. They both serve a great lunch and dinner which includes sushi, homemade pasta and a desert table that reminds me of the Italian wedding sweets table. I got to try Swiss wine that is not sold outside of Switzerland. However, I believe the most famous thing about the cafeterias is the espresso and the espresso machines they have available. Whenever someone talks about the CERN cafeteria they always mention the espresso. They get a gleam of joy in their eyes. The availability of coffee and espresso at CERN is a significant part of the culture and has been replicated at Fermi Lab in Batavia, IL with the Espresso Café and folks often will chip in to buy a fancy espresso machine within the physics department. The coffee vending machines located through-out the CERN have about 20 different options.



The food is good at CERN cafeterias but the company is even better. We ran into so many old good friends from Fermi lab there was hardly a night we didn’t have a dinner invitation. After a good meal everything looks more beautiful than it already is. CERN is wonderful place to be.




P.S. View from hotel room overlooking Geneva and CERN.