1st Morning in Switzerland

Hello World!

If you could imagine the largest, most significant machine to ever exist in the world of experimental physics...what would you think of?

Probably something close to this: an underground particle accelerator, 17 miles in circumference located 300 feet under the boarder of Switzerland and France. The machine's data collectors would be gargantuan. The heaviest one would probably have more iron than the Eiffel Tower. And, oh yeah, its purpose in a nutshell would probably be to crash protons together at such high energies that the scientists are essentially recreating the environment that occurred directly after the "big bang." Turns out, such a machine does exist and scientists predict that when it is finally used this summer for the first time, the discoveries that it will make will be the most influential findings in Physics since Newton's developments of the fundamental laws or Einstein's theory of special relativity. But how does all this relate to a simple blog?

Clearly, it is time to introduce myself. My name is Carolyn and I am a student at Phillips Academy Andover in Andover, Massachusetts. Recently, I was selected as a finalist for the Lorant Fellowship at school and after having developed a trip to Switzerland, was sponsored by a few department chairs at school to study the LHC, the major Physics experiment that I described above. The purpose of this blog, then, is to publish my discoveries about this crazy machine over the next 7 days in normal English so that non-Einsteins like myself can understand all that is going on. So through this strange string of events, here I am sitting at my computer in Geneva, Switzerland talking to you. 

Today is my first day in Switzerland and I am just sort of taking this all in. I'm not sure what I will experience, and all I know about the LHC is what I have read. But as my trip continues, I will continue to post messages and pictures on this blog....and hopefully, raise some awareness about this huge event occurring in the world of Physics. Welcome and please keep on checking this blog.