Zürich, CMS, oh my.
Week 3 started off hot with a visit to CMS. The Compact Muon Solenoid is one of many experiments at CERN. This 50 foot tall detector is 100 meters underground, and connected to the Large Hadron Collider tunnel, along with three other main detectors in the loop. When particles in the LHC collide, they do so inside of one of these detectors.
The purpose of this colossal machine is to detect and map the spray of constituent particles that are produced from a single collision. The hope is to get insights into and to know as much as possible about each type of particle and how they interact with one another.
If you aren't familiar with particle physics, you may be surprised to know that there are at least 17 different particles that have been observed as the result of proton collisions, and, in principle, there are an infinite number of possible particles.
A lot of very high energy collisions occur inside this room, and as a result it can become very radioactive. The LHC is not currently running due to LS2 and is cleared for visitors, but we had a geiger counter just to make sure.
When LHC is operating, and CMS is detecting, the apparatus does not look like it does in these pictures. The two parts on the left and right come together within less than an inch of each other to complete the vacuum tube that the protons travel through. The path of the protons and the whole process of accelerating them near to the speed of light is complicated, but this is a good animation of the process. ⇩
Zürich was also cool.
On Friday afternoon we took a train to Zürich, Switzerland.
The train ride was only supposed to be 2.5 hours long, but on the way there it took over 5 because there was some sort of accident. We could tell something was wrong by the abruptness of the stop and by the fact that we were in the middle of nowhere when it was made. There were announcements in German, French, and sometimes English every 15 minutes that were really vague but generally told us nothing.
We were trapped and it felt like a real life murder mystery or some train variation of the game clue. Our best guess (a joke of course) on who committed the murder: the man in the orange vest, pacing back and forth in the dining car with the formaldehyde rag.
We never found out what was wrong, but eventually another train came to save us and we made it to Zürich around 9 pm.
Zürich is very similar to Geneva, except bigger, older, and more expensive (if you can believe it). The main difference is that Geneva is in the French part of Switzerland, whereas Zürich is in the German part. They speak Swiss German, which is totally unfamiliar to me and kind of intimidating. We learned how to say "ich spreche kein deutsch," which means I don't speak German.
We visited Kunsthaus Zürich, which is an art museum that has some good stuff in it. We saw some Picasso, Monet, and a boatload of Giacometti.
Flora, no Fauna
The highlight of the day was the succulent museum. It's essentially a giant greenhouse with 6,500 or more different species of plants.
Everyone got excited about the small plants for sale, and neglected to realize that if you purchase a plant in the middle of the day in a foreign city, you will have to carry that bad boy around through the snow, into restaurants, and onto trains until you get back home.
Right now I am writing a French paper on Vietnamese food and wishing I had chosen a different topic.
It's easy to undervalue the importance of spending time with friends.
A wedding group was on the bridge when we were crossing it. They all lined up along the edge and released their balloons on 3.
It was a beautiful train ride home and a good end to the week. The train is relaxing when it's not stopped for hours in the middle of nowhere. It was nice to have time to just sit and contemplate all of the good things that have happened to me and all of the good people who have gotten me here.
