Apart from the natural beauty
of the area and of course Geneva a major draw card was the CERN particle
accelerator. The first of a series of buildings was the Globe of Science and Innovation which housed the Universe of Particles. The sculpture outside "Wondering the Immeasurable" has numerous names and formula of those
who have worked at CERN and some of their hypothesis.
CERN's latest accelerator is the Hadron Collider which comprises a 27 km
circular tunnel 100 m underground (as no one owns that land) where particles
are accelerated to just under the speed of light while being held in the middle
of the tunnel by huge magnets so that they can then crash into one another at
enormous force to produce ever smaller matter. The resultant data is then
shared world wide where scientists analyse the data given their particular research
interest. This has given rise to many theories such as Up and Down Quarks (the smallest matter?) which have yet to be seen but seem likely to exist…….
The research ranges from the
smallest matter to help us understand what we and the world comprises to those
studying the start of the universe (based on the big bang…)
Our tour included the control
room where they were ramping down the magnets (to enable them to cool) and
collecting and throwing away the remnant particles. I have to say it was mind
blowing stuff which was very simply explained so that we came away with the
idea that we had some understanding. Our guide (who was a scientist) encouraged
questions and Glen had a few very knowledgeable queries that were well
explained. Even the amusing query as to the reason for the bunny on top of one
of the desks had a scientific basis to it. (Glen insisted he knew there would
be a good reason before he asked the question…….)
The first accelerator (Synchotron) was built in 1957 and
stayed in service for over 30 years. In order to ensure the Nuclear research was not
used for improving arms CERN was set up on the basis that all research would be
out into the public domain so that no single nation could benefit from the
results.
As we were only a few hundred
kilometres from Narbonne, cousin Nancy and Sasha drove over to catch up with
us. The last time they saw Tieve and Seren was June 2009 (refer blog) and they
had not met previously met Daelin. We caught up in Geneva for some pasta and a
bit of wine.
Nancy had arranged to stay in
Thonin so Helen and I went and picked them up from the hotel and spent a
wonderfully quiet morning exploring the colourful town.
It has a great vantage
point over the lake and us sufficiently high and steep to warrant a funicular.
The week passed quickly and we
were soon headed back to “Blighty”. With the ‘van we decided to make this a two
day trip during which Tieve accompanied us while the rest of the team forged
ahead. Our overnight stop near Dijon had a restaurant which had much more appeal
than cooking. Tieve was happy to try new foods and found the escargots to her
liking.
After dinner a walk around
the lake was appropriate. Although a bit over 4 kms it appeared very short as
the antics Tieve got up to were hilarious and we spent much of the walk just
chortling.
The stillness of the evening continued the following morning
with an eery mist holding back the rising sun.
As it did so the silhouette of
a hardly distinguishable boat tested the eyesight – was this fishermen or someone
disposing of a body…….
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