Study Abroad Day 14: Day Trip to Geneva

Today was an extremely busy day filled with lots of time on the bus and two professional visits in Geneva, Switzerland. The first visit we took was to CERN, the acronym is in french so it doesn't make sense in english but CERN is the european organization for nuclear research. There are currently over 10,000 scientist from 113 countries who work at CERN, more than half of the world's partial physicists do some type of work with CERN. Lets take a moment to realize that I'm kind of a major science nerd so this professional visit was very interesting and exciting for me.

The first section of our tour was a short lecture on basic physics for those of us who didn't understand the concepts and reasons for CERN's multiple particle accelerators. Next we were taken on a tour and arrived at the first particle accelerator ever built by CERN. The Synchrocyclotron first began use in 1957 and was used for 33 years. After it was retired for a few years they opened it up for public viewing. When we walked into the room with the SC a projection/laser light show began. It described the invention of the SC and exactly how it was assembled and functioned. This was a very impressive show and if you ever get a chance to go to geneva I would recommend coming to see CERN and the SC.

The Synchrocyclotron

 Influential people of CERN (many nobel prize winners)

 The whole SC

We then took a bus to another section of CERN where they explained the new technology that is currently in use. The largest particle accelerator in the world is housed at CERN its called the Large Hadron Collider. Our guide (a partial physicist) explained all of the workings of the LHC and it was super interesting. 

The blue colander contains the separate tubes that the protons travel through:

This is what the inside of the connectors between the blue tubes:

After CERN we headed over to the United Nations! We arrived a little bit late to the UN so we immediately began our tour. I don't have many details or photos because I was simply trying to absorb the information and environment.

This is the room where the Human Right Council meets (the art on the ceiling is a gift from Spain):

This is the room where peace negotiations take place (the art on the walls is stunning done by a spanish painter {sorry don't remember the name}):

We all left the UN and headed down towards Lake Geneva to wander around for a few hours. Sam, Cal and I decided just to walk around and eat a snack because food is SUPER expensive in Switzerland. 

 We found a Laduree and HAD to get some more macaroons:

We headed back to Chamonix on the bus and ate a quick dinner. We were all pretty exhausted so we hung out in the lobby of the hotel for a while then in our room. We finally made it to bed around midnight. I'm glad we had a fun day in Geneva but I'm SOOOOOOOO EXCITED for a day exploring nature in Chamonix, tomorrow!

<3 Morg