Build Your Own Particle Detector
During the preparation for the CERN Open Days, I came up with the new official logo!
As we will have some posters going along with the LEGO model and the construction competition, I though it would be a great idea to have one.
Let me know what you think of the design … I like it ;)
Thanks to the guy(s) from toddle.com for the SVG LEGO man template.
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.
After only about 16 days and with the help of many people I managed to pass the threshold of the required 10,000 supporter yesterday. I tracked the number of supporters over time shown in the plot below and I have to say it’s quite an impressive curve :)
But it’s only the beginning, now starts the real interesting part, the LEGO review. Even though the idea made the first step, it’s not yet certain that the model will be available as a product in the end. So let’s cross fingers and see what LEGO has to say about it. In fact, LEGO just posted their first official comment on the project on the ATLAS mini model Cuusoo page.
At this point I also wanna thank a few supporters that spread word and helped in this success. Most importantly that is Elise from I fucking love science, but there were also Torben at Ingeniøren, the guys from symmetry magazine and University Post, and many many more.
I have finally decided to try to get the mini version of my ATLAS model out in the open as an official LEGO product.
To get to that point, I will need 10.000 people supporting my idea.
So please vote for the model at http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/21619
It took me some time, but finally I managed to write a few words about the fantastic event I took part last Sunday.
I was asked to run one of the stations during the inauguration event of the new Passeport Big Bang interactive circuit at CERN. The circuit is a permanent installation and collection of cycling tours to explore the LHC and the area its situated. During the inauguration event there were a variety of stations set up the inform, educate and entertain the public. One of the stations happened to be my idea of a “Build your own particle detector” competition.
Following the spirit of the ATLAS model I made back in 2011, the task was of course to build the model in LEGO. Putting together pieces bought by the high energy physics group at the Niels Bohr Institute, the CERN outreach group and myself, I managed to get about 15 kg of LEGO. Stuffed in my tracking backpack, I took them from Copenhagen to Geneva and back as my only travel luggage. CERN organised a nice and big tent with plenty of room for heaps of people and kilos of LEGO. With the help of the ATLAS event management team, I managed to fill up the tent with a few posters, my large ATLAS model and a nice big 42″ screen showing the model construction time-lapse movie.
Even though we were certainly lacking a few things in organisation and were certainly not enough people (thanks to my helper Natalie), the idea worked out extremely well.
We estimated the number of children passing through and playing with LEGO in the hundreds, with 81 models handed in for the competition. Again, thanks to the people setting up the ATLAS tent next to mine, I also had some giveaway for every contestant, to bridge the waiting time for a decision of the grand jury.
You can see some pictures of the event and all the models in the competition at http://passeport.mehlhase.info/.
As the event was quite a success, I’ll probably set up a similar event during the CERN Open Days on September 28th/29th and at Kulturnatten in Copenhagen on October 11th.
