CERN celebrates science over and over again!

CERN is getting ready to open its doors for two days of science and entertainment, but the celebrations don’t stop here. From 9 October 2013, France’s Fête de la Science will take up the reins. With more than 1,000 events all over France on the theme “From the infinitely large to the infinitely small", one of them is bound to be taking place near you.

 

Part of the programme from the Fête de la science in 2013 in the Rhône-Alpes region. Download the full programme here.

The nearest one to CERN will be in Divonne-les-Bains. Put Wednesday, 9 October in your diary, because CERN will be taking part!

From 10.30 a.m., join the members of Divonnelectro, an association set up by a group of CERN retirees, for a visit to France's oldest hydroelectric factory.

At 2.30 p.m., head to the Esplanade du Lac in Divonne-les-Bains, where members of the Université pour tous du Pays de Gex will be offering an afternoon of instruction. Robert Jacob, former hydrogen bubble chamber technician at CERN and a member of the Université pour tous, will deliver a lecture entitled "De l'infiniment petit à l'infiniment grand avec 4 instruments d'observation" (from the infinitely large to the infinitely small with four observation instruments), in which he will answer some less than obvious questions, such as: What is the difference between a scan and an MRI? How does a GPS work? And what about the European Southern Observatory’s telescopes in Chile?

The detector for the CMS experiment reconstructed by laser scanner.

After the lecture, adults and children will be invited to take part in a practical workshop led by Youri Robert, a member of CERN’s Civil Engineering Group, Christian Lasseur, former leader of the Experiment Metrology section, and Aurélie Maurisset, surveyor for the CMS experiment. The session will include calculating positions using a GPS and reproducing objects in 3D using a laser scanner capable of measurements to within 3 mm precision.

Finally, at 8.30 p.m., physicist Pauline Gagnon will give a lecture in the Globe of Science and Innovation entitled "Le boson de Higgs : mais qu'est-ce que ça mange en hiver? (et autres détails essentiels)".*

A programme that should be enough to whet everyone's appetite…


*Reserve your place at Pauline Gagnon’s lecture by calling the CERN Reception on +41 22 767 76 76 or by sending an e-mail to cern.reception@cern.ch.

For more information about the events organised as part of the 2013 Fête de la Science in the Rhône-Alpes region, please visit www.fetedelascience-rhonealpes.com.  

by Anaïs Schaeffer