C'est pas sorcier

Today was a pretty low-key day...I just walked around CERN and explored. It was also very very hot, which wore me out a bit. I'm posting some more pictures from Geneva and also some interesting pieces of old detectors on display around CERN. See captions for descriptions!


Got to see the site where the Red Cross was founded!


I just thought this was a nice view of an old alleyway


A very typically European narrow uphill walkway

Saw many, many cool high end cars in Geneva. This would be a Ferrari


And I don't know what kind this is, but it was awesome in person.


The building with the black bricks is the oldest house in Geneva.

Now, onto some pictures of things at CERN:


This is the European Bubble Chamber. When it was running, it would be filled with a liquid such that when particles hit the liquid, their tracks form bubbles that we detect and take pictures of to analyze the data.


A view inside the bubble chamber from the bottom


The piston that was used to close up and create pressure in the bubble chamber.


This is an RF cavity from CERN's old accelerator, LEP. This is what drives the proton beam around the accelerator.



A side view of the RF cavity. The center part is where the beam would go through.


This whole setup is a Cockroft Walton generator, which is used to feed protons into the accelerator ring.


A closeup of the voltage stepper of the Cockroft Walton.

Another French bubble chamber called Gargamelle


View inside Gargamelle


This is a "solar fountain" that is on the lawn in front of CERN's Restaurant 1.
The solar energy collected by the panel is used to squirt water and keep a ball elevated in the air.


Closeup of the actual fountain part. It was a sunny day!


And finally, I get a big kick out of this. As you probably know, CERN's new accelerator is called the LHC. This sign in front of restaurant 1 says CERN LH...C'est pas sorcier. "C'est pas sorcier" can be interpreted as "It's not rocket science." I got a big laugh out of that!