CERN: The place where particles go Hulk Smaaash!
It took me a good 24-hour journey to reach there. So, before we get to talk about CERN, how about a little detour to provide context because the excitement was too surreal. If you are lazy… Don’t be! Be like a photon, bump into each other, get excited and read. Or else skip to the section title Destination CERN.
In 2012 just before I had to decide on what professional course I wanted to get into, everything made sense and didn’t at the same time. Not because I was confused on what I wanted to do, that was clear. I wanted to do science. It was because I was in my quantum mechanics phase. Having freshly introduced to calculus in the same academic year, it felt like I had gained sight in an additional wavelength. At the same time the detection of a new particle was announced, it was nicknamed the God Particle. It was the Higgs Boson. A couple of months later, the Nobel prize in theoretical physics was awarded to the physicists who accurately predicted the existence of such a particle several decades earlier. During that time period, I was getting up to speed about CERN. Even though I had known about the existence of CERN for a while and It made news for constructing the Large Hadron Collider, there was a hell lot I didn’t know. Learning about CERN was fascinating, it was like I was watching a Science Fiction movie. After that, I really wanted to visit CERN.
Now that I was in Europe doing my masters and it was summer break, I followed up on that Idea for my trip. I applied for the visit through the portal on CERN webpage. I got the approval within a week. And the trip was on. The 1st of July this year, I was on my way to CERN, the first stop on the trip. Was a little bit scared but was pumped with excitement! I was interrailing for at least the next 3 weeks and going solo. Playing ‘Don’t stop me now’ by Queen on my headphones on repeat for a couple of hours (to calm down because I wasn’t scared, I was terrified, never done anything like that before). Little did I know that I would get stranded on the platform on the Copenhagen central station for the whole night less than 24 hours into the journey. It is a funny memory now and a story for another time. But the important thing is I reached Geneva the night before my appointment. It is easy to reach CERN from there, no big deal.
Destination CERN
Dropping off at the CERN bus stop you will see CERN on both the sides of the road. One side the reception not so exciting but that is where you get the security tag for the facility tour so go check in. On the other side, you see really big and really round building they refer to as the ‘globe’ and a worm looking thing right in front of it which is a steel sculpture looks like a scroll. Did I say the building was round? It was. It was so round. I still had more than a couple of hours before I had to check in and join the tour. So, I went towards the exciting side of the road.
The Globe of Science and Innovation houses a permanent exhibit called the Universe of Particles. Although the exhibit itself is designed more like an overview of CERN and what it does, it was filled with information and interactive kiosks containing interactive projections, 3D videos etc. That was unexpected. A film was also played about the particles, the universe, and the big bang. The new things on the display that caught my eye were the different detectors used. I had never seen a pixel detector made of a silicon chip with tiny sensors on them or the crystal detectors made of lead tungstate (PbWO4) in person. These are like the camera sensors placed at the point of collision and used to capture the image of the collision and detect the particles. I wish I could post pictures of them but It was a poorly lit space and honestly, I was too excited to capture photos. But I remember everything vividly! After I was finished with this exhibit I headed outside to see what the worm looking structure was.
Before getting close to check out what the sculpture was, I could see the words engraved on it. The sculpture is called ‘wandering the immeasurable’. When I got closer I could see names of scientists and their discoveries in their native languages. On the other side of the sculpture, I saw equations corresponding to the discoveries engraved on the other side. It is so clear and sharp, It looks like it was laser cut. The most satisfying part of looking at this sculpture was that I recognized most of the equations. The beautiful sculpture filled with all the beautiful equations, and particularly what it represents made an impression. The ‘collective efforts of so many people from so many different countries and cultures spread across millennia in time contribute to solving the mysteries of the universe and understanding the cosmos’ gives you a thought or two. I stood there for 20 minutes simply staring at it. Then I did take a couple of pictures of it because it was one of the coolest things I had seen that day. Then I still had time left before the facility tour so I made my way to the not so exciting side of the road to the building with the reception to sit and wait but I found out is another permanent exhibit in that building and I saw that as well.
The exhibit in the reception building is called MICROCOSM. Here you can get all your questions answered about the accelerator and the acceleration. Almost all the curious questions about the particle accelerators are answered through the interactive kiosks. I mean from the size scale of the particles, the different types of experiments done at different collision chambers, data centers, to acceleration physics. You also get a peek inside into the accelerator itself through a cut section of the tube in the tunnel which we always see in pictures.
But the coolest things you will see here are the two working simulations. One starts with taking hydrogen from the hydrogen bottle follows through all the significant stops along the length of the accelerator. The other simulation is more interactive, it is like a control console for the particle accelerator. Here I could accelerate the particles by flipping magnetic fields and increase their energy until the collision. Yes, you get to do that! I know its just a simulator, but it is for a particle accelerator and you don’t find one of that scale every day. Outside of that space, there were old detectors and particle chambers on display, which for some reason I thought looked like a moon lander and yeah, It was written in the description to not confuse it with the moon lander and it was a detector.
After a fun half day at the CERN, it was time, I finally get to see behind the scenes at CERN. I got the security clearance tag with my name on it. We were gathered in a group of about 2 dozen people. Then the whole group had to sit through a short introduction session and instructions. Also met Ben, the tour guide. He was doing his research on acceleration physics at CERN. We started the tour, the first stop was the sculpture with the beautiful equations. He told us a lot of interesting facts about the sculpture but the ones that stood out were that It was a gift to CERN and weighed 15 tonnes made of stainless steel. Also, there was an arrow pointing towards the Euler’s Identity equation which I had not noticed. It is considered the most beautiful equation of all time and it is. And the misplaced arrow is to signify that.
Now, we proceed to ATLAS control center. While walking I saw multiple paintings of the accelerator drawn to scale on the walls of the buildings. That gives a clear perspective on how big the facility is. Its a room filled with a lot of computers and screens with graphs and numbers. There is also a flow chart that explains the ATLAS experiment. And I also saw physicists in their natural habitat. In the same building, there was a 3D video presentation about CERN. All through this time, I was asking Ben all the questions about the actual physics of accelerators that I had, he was very patient and helped me understand how physics works and also gave me homework. I told him I was doing a lot of math in my course earlier so he said that will be piece of cake.
Then the group was walking to the last stop on the tour, the accelerator itself. During that time, I started to talk to one of the group members. She was doing her majors in Molecular genetics in Canada and was in Switzerland on an assignment. That got me started talking to her about CRISPR, alligator man and robot overlords and we reached the place where they housed an actual particle accelerator. It was decommissioned but it smashed particle together at one point of time in its life. It was the Synchrocyclotron. I know it sounds like a badass transformer. It is not a transformer but it is definitely badass. It was the first ever accelerator built by CERN in 1957. Coolest thing ever. The group spent some time in that space and there was a video projected on to the wall and the accelerator to explain how it works. After that, we head back to the reception.
On the way back, I continue my conversation with the lady I was talking to earlier. We made a deal saying when molecular genetics is perfected, she would help me make my own custom-made pet and I would give her the teleporting machine when I invent one. It might seem silly, but you don’t meet a molecular genetics scientist every day and I didn’t want to miss an opportunity like that.
Then we went to the souvenir shop. I really wanted to buy and mug with the Lagrangian equation on it. But it was out of stock. So I bought the next best thing, a coffee mug which changes color to reveal the evolution of the universe when you pour hot stuff into it. Now I can see the evolution of the universe every day when I drink coffee.
I was a tiny bit disappointed the I could not see the LHC. But it was so much fun seeing all the other things at CERN, meeting interesting people and buying a mug that has makes me go ‘Woah!’ every time I am drinking coffee or hot cocoa (Nope, it doesn’t get old). At the end of the day, I was so glad I took the trip. I headed back to Geneva where I stayed and my inner geek was extremely happy. I really want to go back and to see the LHC that is underground. If you are still reading this far ahead, you should visit as well. I also hoped I’d get exposed to dark matter and struck by lightning so I could be the flash. Didn’t happen. So visiting another time increases my odds.
Okay, Bye!