UVI Physics visit to CERN 11-13 March

On Sunday, after a flight to Geneva, we arrived at CERN (a particle physics research facility) in the early evening, having dined at the airport.

Monday morning was spent touring the CERN facility. The group was given an explanation of the history of CERN, its achievements and its current projects by a researcher. We then proceeded down to the particle accelerator, a 27km ring 80m below the ground. There we saw 'Atlas', CERN's latest detector for discovering secrets of the universe, which was a staggering 7,000 tonne device (pictured left).

In the afternoon we visited Michael Campbell, brother of our own Mr Campbell, who, along with his team, gave us presentations explaining their work transferring the technologies discovered at CERN to more practical uses such as industry and medicine.

We also visited CERN's interactive visitors' centre, where we were further enlightened as to the discoveries made at CERN.

By about 4 p.m. we were on the bus to Geneva where we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening wandering around looking at the numerous watch and chocolate shops and admiring the magnificent Jet d'eau (picture below). We enjoyed an Italian meal before returning to CERN for the night, and returning to Edinburgh on Tuesday morning.

Thanks to Mr Armstrong for organising and leading the trip and to Dr Twyford for accompanying us.

Andrew (UVI)