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Published: July 30th 2008
I have posted here photos of my visit to LHCb. They closed the tunnel to this experiment a couple days after my visit, so I barely made it in time! LHCb is an experiment that will study the beauty (also referred to as "bottom") quark in order to explain the relative lack of antimatter in the universe. Basically, the question it is trying to answer goes like this: When know that when matter meets antimatter, particles annihilate. We also know particles are created in particle-antiparticle pairs. So then, why is the universe, to the best of our knowledge, composed mostly of matter? Why do we exist? The tour took us into a lot of specific details of the construction of LHCb. One of the more interesting things about the setup of LHCb is I could still see the beamline when I went to visit. The is where they inject protons that have been accelerated at the LHC into the experiment. This was something that I could no longer see when I went to ATLAS.
I went to Barcelona this weekend and had a wonderful time! We spent a full day on the beach, and also took time to see the sights
and eat real Paella. We went to the aquarium, the Picasso museum, the olympic park, the arch de triumph, and both of the Gaudi buildings that are UNESCO world heritage sights. The Sagrada familia was, in particular, breathtaking. Even though it is still under construction, it is the most ornate building I have ever seen. If you get a chance, google a picture of it. Unfortunately, I won't be able to post photos until I can steal ones my friends have posted off of facebook, because my camera was stolen 😞 However, on a more positive note, I did get to make a trip to see a huge statue of Columbus in old Barcelona. This is the statue Mom told me to find because it is near where she lived when she studied abroad. It was so amazing to think we both had been in the same place, just with many years between us.
My work has come to a standstill. I finished my final paper. So, I asked my advisor what I should do. He told me I could make a poster to present at the summer student sessions. Then, he said I could take a vacation! This was
quite surprising to me. Since I think it would pretty much not be a good idea to take a vacation on the University of Michigan and CERN's unknowing dollars, I wrote Homer Neil, one of the professors in charge of the UMich program an e-mail. I had been a bit stressed about the whole ordeal, but feel better now that, early this morning, I got a reply from him. He wrote:
"I'm very sorry to hear that your mentors had not made better plans for your work this summer. It is not acceptable that they submit a project for students for the full summer, and then disappear just because the month of August arrives. The full summer is supposed to one of intense learning and discovery for our students, and certainly not one where work-week vacations can be contemplated."
He went on to say he has discussed my situation with the other UMich professors and has set up a meeting time with me today where I will discuss with him some alternate ways to round out the summer. This will most likely be some work with a UMich professor. Once I know what my new work will entail, I'll write
more about it.
In other news, I lost my voice in Barcelona and it still has yet to return. This will be day four. I'm thinking of going on a talking strike just so I don't sound like a frog for the rest of my time here...
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