Category Archives: Outreach

Man on a mission …

CERN, Geneva, Outreach

… and the mission were some special shifts at point one, just above the ATLAS control room. Unfortunately the task did not give any credits within ATLAS, but to build my third ATLAS model in plastic bricks isn’t too bad of a job either.

To be more precise it’s actually a reassembly of the second model I build in Copenhagen, though had to take apart (at least in sections) before shipping it to CERN. Another specialty of this build is the fact that – and LEGO enthusiasts please excuse – I decided to use glue this time. Since this model, after being shown at researchers night this weekend, s supposed to be driven by car to Montreux for the ATLAS week during the next five days.

So I ended up sitting in a room with twenty computers, no window to open and the smell of glue in the air … Yeah!

Anyways, once again the model tuned out nice and hopefully it will survive the trip.  I guess I’ll know tomorrow …

In the meantime I heard that also CMS managed to build a plastic brick version of their detector … I’ll post more details once I have them! Also that means LHCb will be my next mission ;)

Destination: Australia

Australia, Melbourne, Outreach, Physics

For those that didn’t know yet, I am currently in Melbourne, Australia. The main reason is probably the 36th International Conference on High Energy Physics (ICHEP) that currently takes place at the Melbourne Convention Centre. Another reason is the first public display of my ATLAS model in the Melbourne Planetarium during the same time (actually longer than that).

And since I am going to spend about three weeks in Australia, we decided to make it a family trip, so Heike and Erik joined in.

Flying Berlin – Düsseldorf – Abu Dhabi – Melbourne, we spend about two days in planes and on airports to get to our first destination in the centre of Melbourne. Still fighting with a bit of jet lag I went to see the folks of Melbourne University (cheers to Caroline and Dave) and Tanya from the planetarium on Friday. After getting a bit of an introduction to University and the Centre of excellence for particle physics in Australia, I went to see the exhibition and the ATLAS display at the Planetarium for the first time. Quite a nice casing and setting as well as some nice posters and videos in the installation (they also made a time-lapse video of their build in Melbourne about three weeks ago).

On the weekend we managed to get a bit out of town to see a wild life parks (with Kangaroos, Koalas and all that), some national parks (with actual ‘wild’ Koalas) and the Great Ocean Road. We actually rented a car and I had my first left-driving experience, which was quite nice due to the (at least for me) surprising fact that though everything is opposite in local cars, the pedals are the same way as in right-driving cars (accelerating right, breaking middle/left).

Today ICHEP finally started – which is the reason why I managed to write this blog as I didn’t have (affordable) internet before :( – and it started with a blast: they/we found the Higgs, well we found some boson that is compatible with the/a Standard Model Higgs, to be politically correct (or what you call it). Anyways … quite some excitement, both here and at CERN, where the results were actually presented (we just got a live feed here). But after that the reception seemed to be more exciting for most people (mainly because many people might have had an idea before the actual presentations).

One minor detail that was interesting (at least I thought so) … CERN’s press release on this issue was released already after CMS’ presentation and not after ATLAS’ results were shown as well. Also this time the release quoted only one spokesperson (CMS’) instead of both.
Hmm? But meh …

We’ll see what else this ICHEP has to offer, starting tomorrow morning …

ATLAS LEGO model media coverage

CERN, Niels Bohr Institue, Outreach

Starting last weekend my ATLAS LEGO model is out in the open … since then my visitors count on this webpage increased by 10.000! The 3D image of the model is on the front page of the ATLAS website regularly and various newspapers and blogs already wrote about it …

  • ATLAS (link)
  • CERN Courier (Volume 52, Jan/Feb 2012, p. 43 + front page)
  • CNET Crave Gadget – Rich Trenholm (link)
  • Corriere della Fanatascienza – Leo Lorusso (link)
  • CrackJack.de (link)
  • CuteDecision – “2cute” (link)
  • dailymail.co.uk – Rob Waugh (link)
  • DigitalTrends.com – Jeff Hughes (link)
  • Discovery Center – Anne Mette Frejsel (link)
  • Forbes – Alex Knapp (link)
  • French Tribune – Bruce Totolos (link)
  • Galileu (link)
  • Gandul – Ioana Nicolescu (link)
  • Geek.com – Matthew Humphries (link)
  • Geekologie.com (link)
  • Gizmodo Australia – Logan Booker (link)
  • The Guardian – LifeAndPhysics – JonButterworth (link)
  • Ingeniøren –  Torben R. Simonsen (link)
  • Laboratory News – Kerry Taylor Smith (link)
  • NyTeknik – Jan Melin (link)
  • OSEL.cz – Stanislav Mihulka (link)
  • PClabs.com.tr – Erdem Gukrer (link)
  • PCWorld – Jason Kennedy (link)
  • PhysOrg.Com – Bob Yirka (link)
  • Physics World (Volume 25, 1 January 2012, p. 3)
  • Science&Vie Junior (Volume 273, June 2012, p. 36)
  • Scoop.It – Paulo Furtado (link)
  • ShlashGear – Shane McGlaun (link)
  • Der Standard (link)
  • Spektrum der Wissenschaft – Physik WebWatch (link)
  • Supermozg.pl – Bartosz Łopiński (link)
  • SyFy Idea Lab – Tiffany Lee Brown (link)
  • SyFy Idea Lab Interview – Tiffany Lee Brown (link)
  • Symmetry Breaking – Amy Dusto (link)
  • Technology Review – Peter Glaser (link)
  • Tiede – Maria Korteila (Volume 2, 2012, p. 58)
  • TG Daily – Emma Woollacott (link)
  • Traqueur Stellaire – Guillaume Calu (link)
  • Universitetsavisen (1) – Madhura Mukhopadhyay (link)
  • Universitetsavisen (2) – Polina Chebotareva & Mike Young (link)
  • University of Melbourne – Science Matters –  Cristen Teen (link)
  • The Verge – Ross Miller (link)
  • Wired – Katie Scott (link)
  • Wired Taiwan – Min-Fang Huang (link)
  • Wired GeekDad – Roy Wood (link)
  • Wired Science – Daniela Hernandez (link)

ATLAS model on world tour

CERN, Niels Bohr Institue, Outreach, Physics

This weekend the first public ATLAS build took place in Melbourne.

After the two models I built at NBI in Copenhagen, this is the first one to be build by others following our instruction videos, which can be found at http://atlas-model.mehlhase.info

With a bunch of children and LEGO enthusiasts the model was constructed in the Museum Victoria, where it is going to be on display from June 30th to July 15th in a LHC exhibition in connection to this year’s ICHEP in Melbourne.

After all the media attention the model already had, it now had its first appearance (as far as I know, please tell me wrong) in local TV news – Channel Seven in Melbourne to be more specific …

And this is only the beginning of the tour :)

ATLAS model

CERN, Movies, Niels Bohr Institue, Outreach, World Wide Web

Today I finally finished the video construction manual for the ATLAS brick model. After more than a month and uncounted hours in hot spotlights I finally uploaded all episodes today. All Full HD video clips along with some more instructions, tips and hints for the build can be found at:

http://atlas-model.mehlhase.info.

In addition I also created a time-lapse movie (see below) showing both the construction of the second ATLAS brick model, here at NBI, and the construction of ATLAS, down in the cavern in Geneva.