A Fusion of Fun, Learning and the Nucleus

CERN. The world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator. A dream of many was about to be realized through this trip. Yet, this trip was so much more. It was the cultural and technical immersion of us into France and Switzerland's finest. 

On the 24th of January, 2020, a group of 40 science enthusiasts set foot into Toulouse, France. On the first day, we went to the J.L. Lagardère site, an area entirely dedicated to the assembly of the A380, the world's largest passenger aircraft. The following day, we visited Aeroscopia, where we saw a few iconic aircrafts such as the super guppy; a large, wide-bodied cargo aircraft that can carry items that are virtually impossible to fit into any other aircraft. Hence, this aircraft was used to transport NASA’s components of the Apollo program.

Day three was all about ambitious, carbon-free energy projects in Marseilles, France. We visited the ITER project, international nuclear fusion research, and engineering megaproject. This $20 billion megaproject is a collaboration between 35 countries on the ITER Tokamak machine which is designed to harness the energy of nuclear fusion. The record for the longest sustained plasma is 6 minutes and 30 seconds achieved by this French Tokamak in 2003.

We then visited the CEA- Nuclear Studies Centre, where we got to witness experiments by the scientists themselves about magnetic levitation with superconductors. Later that evening, we visited the Basilique Notre-dame de la Garde church with ornate French architecture and absorbed the panoramic view of the city once we reached the top. 

Next stop- Geneva, Switzerland. It took us a whopping 7-hour bus ride to reach but that too went by quickly with the mesmerizing Jura mountain range by our side as we drove along. We visited the Red Cross of Switzerland and learned how the organization is providing aid all around the world. We also learned about how the Red Cross helps unite families in war-torn regions.

We then proceeded to CERN, the very purpose of our trip. At CERN, we got to learn about the intricacies of the large hadron collider, the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator that works at 99.9% the speed of light. We also learned about how CERN discovered the elusive Higgs Boson back in 2012. We were guided by the physicists at CERN, quenching our curiosity every step of the way.

The next day, we went to the UN headquarters in Geneva where we toured the building, which was also used by the League of Nations before it dissolved. We were able to see the General Assembly hall for the UN and learned about the workings of various councils and committees.

After the tour, we embarked on our journey back home with fantasies of French croissants and volumes of newly acquired knowledge in all our minds.

~Sindhu Sunkand