Bastille Day

One thing I can say about this trip is that it has exceeded my expectations. Bastille Day is one example of how...
The day started with another lecture, this one on medical applications of particle physics. The one most would be familiar with is a PET scan, or Positron Emission Topography. Since a positron is an anti-electron, it is an example of anti-matter in action.
The rest of the morning/afternoon, we worked in our working groups. I spent some time learning HYPATIA (Hybrid Pupils Tool for Interactions in ATLAS, which we are now getting to the point where there are acronyms inside acronyms inside acronyms). I am now working on writing a manual of sorts to help determine if an interaction is one of 5 types: a W boson to muon/neutrino, a W boson to electron/neutrino, a Z boson to electrons, a Higgs event, or background noise. I have the rules written, I just have to see if what I have works.
At supper, we made plans for celebrating Bastille Day. There ended up being 19 of us partiers, and we divided up into 4 cars to go to Ferney-Voltaire, France. You can guess which car I chose....
The town celebration was on the grounds of Voltaire's Chateau. We got a bottle of wine, walked around a little, and then had a seat on the hill looking toward the Alps.

In this picture, there is Eva-Lissa from Finland, Cornelia from Macedonia, Isabelle from Portugal, Michelle from England, and Anna from Scotland.

The fireworks were choreographed to music and spectacular. I videoed a few songs before my battery went dead.

This morning we were back at it with a lecture on anti-matter. This lecture series is by Rolf Landua, probably the world's leading expert on anti-matter. Parts 2 and 3 are tomorrow, and he promised to bring a container of anti-matter to the lecture (with fully charged batteries...take that Angels and Demons!). I will make sure my camera is with me.

Right now I am supposed to be working on HYPATIA, and then this evening is a trip into Geneva.

There is so much to do here, and we only have 3 days off in the entire schedule. Plans for this weekend include going to Bern, where Einstein's apartment and patent office are located Saturday, and then a boat up to a medieval village on Sunday. I'm missing out on Montreaux Jazz Festival and a luge down the mountainside, but I do hope I can try Meat on a Mace before I leave.

Back to work....