CERN 2012
by Alex Grace O
n Thursday 25th October, ten A
Level physicists and two members
of staff set off for Switzerland to
visit CERN and the Large Hadron Collider.
The trip started with an early rise and a
relatively short journey to the airport,
then another fairly short flight to Geneva.
Shortly after arriving at our destination we
made our way to base camp, a very nice
hostel right in the middle of Geneva.
After we had settled in, we made our way
to the United Nations Headquarters
building. On arrival we saw a massive
chair that only had three legs - the fourth
looked like it had been blown off as there
was only half of it, and it was charred
and splintered. Upon arrival at reception
we had to stand behind the previously
much-hyped yellow line, with stories of
people being shot if you stepped over it,
but to our disappointment the yellow line
was only about three feet wide and no
one stepped over it!
We were shortly inside, and when our
guide arrived, she took us round as much
of the UN as is legally possible. We were
shown conference rooms which all had
different purposes, for example one room
we were shown was devoted to the health
of the world, where every country would
send representatives, and they would
discuss health issues in each of these
countries. We also learned that there
were six different languages spoken in the
UN: English, French, Chinese (Mandarin),
Spanish, Arabic and Russian. There was
also a breathtaking amount of art all
around the UN, all from different
countries and cultures. There was really
a lot to learn at this awesome building.
Friday was dedicated to the main aim of
our trip - the day at CERN. There were
two museums that we visited in the
morning before going for our guided tour;
the first one was called 'Univers de
Particules' or the 'Universe of Particles'.
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This year's CERN group outside the
Globe of Science and Innovation