Chamonix, Bastille Day in France

 Got back from a drive into France to see Mt Blanc near Chamonix on Bastille Day --- What a site to see.

Took a tram drive up to see a Glacier and into a Ice Cave.

Higgs More info!

Quick explaination of the Higgs Boson and more information:

www.youtube.com/embed/9Uh5mTxRQcg
www.youtube.com/embed/ASRpIym_jFM

Yesterday we had a lecture in "Introduction to Particle Detectors"by Frank Hartmann (CERN and KIT - Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)

Before you build a detector, we needed to know the interactions between different elements (photon, charged particles, hadronic interactions, and neutrinos) and what properties we wanted to measure (energy, momentum, charge, life time, decay modes).

The electrons leaves traces in the tracker and in the electromagnetic calorimeter (and stops). The photons leaves traces in the electromagnetic calorimeter (and stops). The hadrons leaves traces in the tracker, the electromagnetic calorimeter and in the hadronic calorimeter (and stops). The muons leaves traces in all of them.

The principal function of  tracking detectors is measure the tracks of emerging particles; determine charge and momentum in connection with a magnetic field; tracks are then reconstructed from measured space-points to determine what the particle actually was!!

It has been 1 week, since we have been here ... not sure what to say but - wow.

Chateau de Cirey-Sur-Blaise

This weekend, we had some time off - a few of the American teachers drove into France, a other teachers went to Berne, and even others went to Lisand(?) -- maybe next weekend can go to Mont Blank?

Me stand in both, France (left foot) and Switzerland (right foot)

Kevin Wolfe and I, in front of the United Nations

 


















 Yesterday, we went into Geneva and had a scavenger hunt to view the city, saw LOTS of things including the United Nations ...













 then ate some fundo.

inside the Globe

Today, 3.July.'12 ... had intro talk about ISBE, inside the Globe - the round dome above - which is made out of wood! Then had a surprise ... got to have a Q/A session with Sir Prof Peter Higgs -- he is the main guy that worked on the proposed the Higgs-Boson back in 1968!  and Tomorrow July 4th at 9am local Geneva time, will get to here proof either way if it is true or not... I am leaning to the former! 

So I just landed a bit ago, it's 10:51 am, but for people in Minnesota it is more like 3:52am only 7 hrs different. 
Fly into Dulles, yesterday and it was 100+ degrees and you could feel it inside when you were departuring the airplane... hopefully temp drops soon for everyone!

1st official meeting is at 16:30 tomorrow, will need to figure what to do today, maybe go to a pool since it will be 36 C (~93 F) here today - really warm they have said!

Todays is short and sweet -- just the basics!

Getting ready and nervous for the Trip Tomorrow ... will be a interesting time at CERN with their big announcement on July 4th!