IPPOG 26 at CERN

The 26th International Particle Physics Meeting is taking place in CERN, and I've been sent to represent Ireland there. CERN was nothing like what I expected though. It looks like a glorified industrial park, only with far cooler people and things inside the buildings.

We went on a tour of the Science Gateway (the new CERN visitors centre) which was surprisingly controversial amongst the physicists. The prevailing opinion was that there wasn't enough particle physics there, too light on a lot of details. And whilst I agree that I'd have liked to have seen far more detail, on reflection if I brought a class from when I thought in the UAE there they'd have loved it. It's for the public after all, not the experts.

Anyway, if you're in Geneva go to the CERN science gateway. It's right next to the tram station.

Extra is one of the exhibits from the CERN gateway. This machine was used by Tim Berners-Lee and was the first World Wide Web server. Seems apt to post it as without it, no blipfoto.com!