CERN.....the home of particle physics!

 Early morning start for a trip to CERN....surprisingly, everyone made it to breakfast on time without having to be dragged out of a bed! No full English shocked a few of our students but no one went without.

Tram no18 was the transport of choice to CERN. 

"Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire" or 'European Council for Nuclear Research' 

www.home.web.cern.ch

@CERN  Twitter.com/cern

The tour started with a 40min lecture on what they do and why the site is so big! The main topics are researching antimatter and dark matter.  Cameron (Hughes) clearly was dying to ask a few questions.....he didn't let us down!! They did encourage students to apply for a summer school program and referred to us as 'possible future employees'. Cameron possibly.......

Our tour began by a quick trip to the CCC (CERN Control Centre for those not in the know!) this building was actually located in France....very strange crossing the border in the little shuttle bus! CCC introduced us all to what actually goes on here and how they go about their search to find particles; the Higgs-Boson was their most recent discovery!

COMPASS (Common Muon and Proton Apparatus for Structure and Spectroscopy) investigates how quarks and glucons interact to give the particles we observe. This was our next stop.....we actually got to see this amazing equipment! How many people can say that?? #lsasciencegeeksontour

Everyone had a really good time....I'm sure we all learnt a lot too! Best day ever for us scientists!!