Year 12 CERN Trip

Miss Lee with this trip report:

“A (belated) report of Year 12’s trip to CERN, Geneva. This is our 3rd year that we have taken the trip to Geneva and this year the Year 12 Physicists were joined by some Year 12 Chemists. As soon as we arrived in (a very hot yet blustery) Geneva, we dropped off our bags at the hotel and headed straight back out to enjoy a lovely afternoon cruise on Lake Geneva and a spin on the Big Wheel which had great views of the Old Town. Unfortunately, as it was so windy, we didn’t get our usual picture in front of Jet d’eau, but we did manage to see it the next day. After a quick bite to eat, it was back out to try and enjoy the England-Belgium game at the fan zone park which had 4 massive TV screens. Unfortunately, the game wasn’t so inspiring but luckily the rest of the trip was.

The next morning, we headed over to the UN Nations, before a short stroll down to the Science museum set in the grounds of the park. There was something for everyone in the museum which displayed numerous pieces of original scientific equipment including one of the very first electrical batteries invented by Volta. It was then a quick stop for lunch before we headed to CERN for our tour. This year we got to visit the data centre to see how and where all the data recorded is stored (as well as Tim Berners-Lee’s computer) and then onto the Anti-Matter factory (yes, there is such a thing). I could go into more detail here, but I would need a few more paragraphs! If you are interested, then please do visit CERN’s website. After the tour and visiting the exhibits there was only time for another quick bite to eat before we headed back to the airport to catch our flight (which for the first time in 3 years was on time). A busy couple of days but the students all seemed to enjoy themselves.

Next year the accelerators will be on a long shut down, so a very rare opportunity to see the detectors themselves next year – can’t wait!”