Category Archives: Physics

First Pixel DCS Shift [Update]

CERN

Today I am having/had my first Pixel DCS (Detector Control System) Observer shift in the ATLAS Control Room.
Watching the baby from 15h to 23h … not much happening though!

In case you wanna be part of it … here you go! Live Webcams!
I am sitting in the front left arc in both pictures …

[Update]
It actually turned out to be two shifts in a row from 15h to ~7h … it got a bit more interesting at about midnight and when I finally managed to remind myself of the bus schedule I notice that the last one left already … voila, I stayed until the bus ran again and enjoyed the night shift, which was eventually more educative than my actual training shift …

What a weekend!!!

Berlin, CERN, Movies

This weekend I was back in the city of Berlin … and the weekend was BIG and exhausting!
I started out as black hole on Friday’s Halloween Party, continued as a guide talking about the LHC and stuff for about 5h at the Weltmaschine exhibition on Saturday (after just 4h30min of sleep), watched the new Coen Brothers movie “Burn After Reading” (which was amusing as usual) and had some very nice ‘price on request’ filet steak at Escados Berlin (hmmm tasty).
On Sunday I restarted with another 5h of talking about the LHC at the exhibition and had another nice dinner …

Thinking about changing the field …X-rays from Sticky Tape

Physics

Ever heard about X-rays from sticky tape … never!?
There you go … its a new field! Still there has been a publication in Nature about exactly this subject.
Some of you might have seen light being emitted when pulling sticky tape, but these physicist could show that there is quite some X-rays comming out of these little bastards …
For everyone interested heres the publication:
“Correlation between nanosecond X-ray flashes and stick–slip friction in peeling tape”, Carlos G. Camara et al.; Nature, Vol. 455, S. 1089 (I cannot put a link due to copyright reasons)
There is a video showing the whole thing though!

LHC Inauguration and LHCfest

CERN, Geneva, LHC, Music

Its been a nice party with some nice orchestra and some cool movies to start out with. After a speech by Robert Aymar and some strange slideshow with orchestra music (well only live for the Inauguration, we got the recording of it) the quite nice buffet was opened … as usual a mess … no wonder with 3000 physicists ;)

Anyway all the classic CERN bands were playing … Les Horribles Cernettes, the CERN Jazz Club Reunion and the Canettes Blues Band. We also had a special appearance of the LHC-Rap performers featuring the head of the LHC as one of the posers ;)

CERN goes wacky …

CERN

… on October 21st!
Due to the official LHC Inauguration and all the important people that want to join this event (beside me ;) nothing works a usual!
All roads between the two CERN sites will be closed, everybody will be put under a security check based on airport standards and has to carry his/her CERN ID card and passport or personal ID card … the the gates will be closed and we have take the back entrance through the vineyards …
And of course the bus stops two stations earlier this day!
This is really giong to be interesting …