Category Archives: LEGO

Munich Hamburg Munich Oxford Munich Geneva Munich

CERN, Geneva, GeoCaching, Germany, LEGO, Munich, Outreach, Oxford, Physics, Switzerland, UK

What should I say, the last week has been quite interesting and maybe a little bit too much.

Friday, 19 September it all started with a – at first – smooth road trip from Munich to Hamburg. Unfortunately, two road blocks turned the whole thing into an exhausting ten hour drive.
After some relax time with friends (greetz), it was time for the first BYOPD event in September on Saturday.  The “Tag der Forschung” (Day of Research) at the HZG in Geesthacht turned out to be very successful event for BYOPD with over 75 participants. After eight hours of science, Legos and kids, the day found a deserved end with a great BBQ (thanks).
On Sunday it took me another ten hours to drive back to Munich. Only bearable due the fact that I found a very nice geocache along the way ;)

After a too short night, I was on the way to Oxford to spend some days (including my last two days of parental leave) talking and thinking about SUSY after the restart of the LHC in 2015.
Here it also turned out, that I apparently not only found treasures on my previous road trip, but also two ticks happily

After finding my way back home and sleeping for four hours, I made my way back to the airport (good thing the ticket I used to get into town was still valid) with all the Legos to go to Geneva.
The PopScience event – part of the European Researches’ Night – took place the FNAC store in the centre of Geneva and featured yet another BYOPD event in September. Not as big as the other one, but still with some very nice contributions.

Today there’s finally some spare time to write this  and I am very much looking forward to get to the airport and back home :)

Something nice in the end

LEGO

Even though the project did not end up where I wanted it to, in the end I got a nice little compensation from LEGO.

Of course, I am talking about the LEGO Cuusoo mini ATLAS model adventure. After they turned down my project, I got to choose three sets from their current catalogue. And here they are …

IMG_20140301_124731

It had to one for the little one, it had to be the Simpsons’ house that just came out and it had to be a Cuusoo set. Well maybe the Cuusoo set was not obligatory. It might well have been the monstrous Death Star set, but then again the Mars Rover is quite cool ;)

Here’s some pictures from the finished Simpsons’ House and the Mars Rover …

Nobel bricks

CERN, Geneva, LEGO, Outreach, Physics

2014-02-21 11-54-36 LEGO signatureThough I unfortunately missed today’s event leading to the left part of the image,
this now complete set makes me a very happy physicist :)

I might get some more pictures later, but this one itself is already quite nice.
Both pieces will end up in the nice new glass casing we got for the ATLAS LEGO model in the ATLAS Visitors Center at Point 1 at CERN.

 

Pushing the bricks to the limit

CERN, Geneva, LEGO, Outreach

2014-02-17 17-36-19 LEGO ChallengeBesides the usual overload on work during stays at CERN, this week was kinda special. It was about 250.000 pieces of LEGO more special than any other week before.
With the help of more than 20 volunteers (thanks a lot to everyone), I was counting, weighing, sorting and packing pieces in the mornings and late evenings. I guess I only had breakfast and dinner twice this week. Anyways, people are in fact still sorting while I am writing this piece at the Geneva airport.

It’s been quite fun, frustrating, enjoyable, social and many more things at the same time. Unfortunately LEGO decided to send the pieces, for the 23 models I ordered, with a safety margin added after multiplying instead of before. Hmm?!

2014-02-17 17-39-47 LEGO ChallengeIn addition we also miss quite a few pieces, but these are all things to be sorted out next week. And even with the pieces missing for now, I guess we start making institutes happy by end of next week. Once done I will update the by now quite impressive ATLAS model statistics. There will be 59 models out in the open by then. *happy*

I will post a few pictures and prepare a time-lapse movie of the event during the coming days (which I guess will be busy as well *unhappy*).