Category Archives: Countries

More LEGO updates

Bergen, Norway, Outreach, Physics

PhysicsWorld

A lot of LEGO related things happened within the past days/weeks :)

I just came back from my trip to Bergen/Norway, where – besides taking some holidays – I spent a couple of days building yet another ATLAS LEGO model.
Only this time, I was only observing a bunch of  kids (up to ten at a time) doing the actual construction of both the large and the small model. The whole thing was organised as part of the biannual meeting of the Norwegian Physics Society, which also invited me to give a plenary talk about outreach with plastic bricks, and my new Build Your Own Particle Detector programme. It was great fun, everybody learned something and I’ll certainly do it again … Thanks to the Bergen people for inviting me :)

Yesterday, I found the new issue of PhysicsWorld at the institute, which features yet another nice little article about the models and their success in the LEGO Cuusoo programme.

Today, I could convince LEGO to support my Build Your Own Particle Detector programme with a few more kilos of LEGO bricks, which we will certainly need for the CERN Open Days in late September.
Speaking of those, I finally will get my own 54 square meters tent again. Which will be packed if the expected number of visitors is actually true :)

Last but not least, we’ll do the same thing for Kulturnatten in Copenhagen, 11 October 2013.

 

Golden Gate

Physics, San Francisco, United States

It’s already the second week in San Francisco now. Lot’s of things to see and do, so I did not manage to write something earlier.

First thing that caused quite some excitement was the fact that I arrived last Monday, while my baggage did not. So I actually had to waste some time on shopping. Some might not call this a waste of time, but you know me.

Besides the shopping tour, I also did quite some sightseeing and walking in SF, including a walking tour over the Golden Gate Bridge and a night tour of Alcatraz. On Wednesday I went to the SF NerdNite at Rickshaw Stop to see a couple science/tech inspired talks given by more or less known figures in the bay area.

On Friday, my baggage finally made it to town. Just in time for a little hiking weekend in Yosemite.
After a four hour drive to the park on Saturday morning, we went on a very nice 15 km hike onto the Mono Pass and the Sardine/Mono Lakes overlook. Coming back to camping ground, some grilled sausages and corn we already waiting for us (greetz Alex, Tobias, Wilko). After a nice and rich breakfast by Tenaya Lake, we made another more relaxing 8km hike, took a dive in one of the small and very cold lakes just outside the park and made us on our way back to SF.

Back in town, I had to realise that not only my first option to print my poster had failed. Also the backup failed, so I had to call and run/cycle through town to get my poster printed on Monday. It was done an hour before the session started.

Talking about the session/conference. It was nice start yesterday, not only on the physics side. In fact, the non-physics part was even more exciting. Besides a few small technical difficulties, we had a power cut interrupting the session, that apparently affected about 300k people in SF. But thanks to the diesel generators in the building the show could go on.

Now I gotta go back to the conference …

And for those that always care, don’t be jealous about the weather … it’s raining; and I’ll be uploading some pictures soon.

Moshimoshi Japan

Japan, Kyoto

I am just about to finish my second day in Japan, still a bit jet-lagged and well fed from today’s welcoming reception at the University of Kyoto.

Yesterday we arrive at Osaka airport and made our way straight to Nara, where we checked in to Chiaki’s very nice guest house. After a little introduction to the house and the city, she offered us three bikes and we made quite a tour throw the Nara park, visited the Great Buddha Hall and some smaller temples and had some Japanese food at a food festival.

Today we started the day with a beautiful breakfast prepared by Chiaki and including everything from sausages, over egg, to soup, bread, jam and even a desert … hmm! The weather was slightly less optimal (rain all day), but we still made a little bike tour to see a few gardens and a bit more of the town. In the afternoon we took the train to Kyoto and moved into yet another traditional (though this time quite luxurious) Japanese house (we even had Champagne in the fridge).

After a long introduction to the house and all the features (yes, also here the toilet is capable of many things), we went for the reception.

More Beijing

Beijing, China, Physics

Today the SUSY2012 conference finally started! For me, once again with not being woken up by my alarm and without (my all incl.) breakfast. Anyways, I made it to the conference for the second talk … puh. The first one started already at 8:30 am.

But mainly I wanted to summarise my yesterday’s version of the Beijing marathon.
I started out with a long metro trip to the Temple of Heaven, took a big tour through the park and the various temples; made my way to the Lama Temple and the surrounding area; took a long walk in the Yuandadu Chengyuan Ruins Park (its the city wall remains park … in which I did not see any city wall remains); and finally made my way to – where else should it be for a marathon – the 2008 Olympic’s Park – the Olympic Green. Gosh … I was wasted after that day.

In terms of other stats: I seemed to have chosen the wrong path at some places which made the proud owner of 78 mosquito bites. And that’s only the ones I can see myself, I can feel more … In addition, it shows that I should have brought my hiking boots, since I got three very nice blisters walking around in my Sambas :(