Category Archives: Countries

Building yet another one down under

Australia, CERN, Outreach, Physics, Sydney

BYOPD squareLooks like I’ll have the chance to build yet another Atlas Lego model in Australia this summer.

Thanks to COEPP and the Powerhouse Museum, I’ll be in Sydney in August to build an Atlas Lego model with students as part of the Sydney Science Festival (FB) / National Science Week in Australia.
During the two-day event we’ll also have public sessions for visitors to build Nathan’s LHC micro models and the finished large model will be part of the CERN Collider exhibition hosted in the same place from 6 August to 30 October 2016.

Follow the BYOPD web site / Facebook site for more updates on this topic …

Oktoberfest

Germany, Munich

Wiesn

O’zapft is – The Oktoberfest has started! It’s been quite some time since I’ve been at the Oktoberfest. But living in Munich now, I guess it’s kind of an obligation to go at least once. Today’s the day … and it was … loud, expensive, crowded, dirty … well Oktoberfest.

PopScience, BYOPD and PhD Comics

CERN, Geneva, LEGO, Outreach, Switzerland

Yesterday, we had another PopScience BYOPD event in Geneva. While it was a bit calm in the morning it ended up quite nice with a decent number of visitors/participants in the afternoon. In fact, I had Jorge Cham, creator of PhD Comics,  joining the competition. Unfortunately, I missed his talk and the showing of the PhD Movie sequel the day before. Luckily, I could make it up with a nice autograph from him (see below).
For the actual European researchers’ night, there were discussion of the physics in movies such as Gravity, Interstellar, Star Trek or Angels & Demons as well as a screening of Particle Fever and a discussion with some of physics cast.

Hmm … good food

Food, Germany, Maria Laach

Staying at Maria Laach – not as a student – apparently implies having one very nice dinner in a very nice restaurant. Supposedly, it’s been a tradition for more than 15 years now, which started with good old Father Athanasius, who was a known connoisseur.

So last Wednesday, all organiser, speakers and group leaders went to Gourmet Wagner in Mayen, to eat a special “13 TeV dinner”. According to the menu, it should have featured 13 courses, one for each TeV in centre-of-mass energy in the LHC, though it seems we were still in 2012, as we only got 8 courses!?

The staff seemed a bit unrelaxed, especially after I asked them about a juice menu (yes it exists, e.g. at Noma), and also the interior was quite posh … anyways, it was really nice food :)

Since I’m at it … the weekend before I had a very nice late lunch at the Hammesmühle, close to Mayen. Not as pricy and posh, but extremely nice food … I had escargots, venison steak and a lovely desert composition.