Meanwhile, at CERN

With all the excitement about the potential discovery of the Higgs boson, I thought I’d share something from my trip to CERN back in 2009.

OK, some backstory. At university I studied Physics with Science Communication, a course that involved learning about and creating science-oriented media alongside the usual physics studies, and in our second year we were tasked with making a short video documentary. Somehow one of my friends had managed to get a contact at CERN to show us around and he needed someone to come along and film it with him. We were taken around a lot of the complex but unfortunately not down to the LHC, although we did get to see the control room (pictured above). What we did get to see was an older particle decelerator, the Anitproton Decelerator, which is used to slow down antimatter to be used in experiments.

Antimatter was in fact the subject of my friend’s video project: examining the science behind Dan Brown’s “Angles and Demons”. In both the book and the film antimatter from CERN is used in a plot to blow up the Vatican, so the idea was to see how plausible this would be. Of course, Dan Brown had managed to seriously over-estimate and sensationalise the amount of antimatter that CERN produces – we found out that the amount made in the entire running time of the experiment wouldn’t power a lightbulb, let alone destroy a city, so there’s really nothing to worry about…

…probably.

Photo Set – Sherkin Island

In August this year I stayed with friends on Sherkin Island, a little island that lies southwest of County Cork in Ireland. It’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve been, and it’s full of wonderful natural beaches and clear blue waters.

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There are also some incredible rock formations and we decided to clambering over some of them, which in hindsight may not have been the most sensible idea, but we made it back without any problems. I have to say my friends were a lot more adventurous than I was, so I elected to stay behind and get some photos.

The most memorable part of the trip, however, has to be the consistently amazing sunsets.

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You’re miles from any heavily urbanised areas so the air quality is fantastic and there’s virtually zero light pollution, and that makes for some fantastic colours.

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Almost every night we’d stand outside the cottage we were staying in and watch the sun go down, only venturing back inside when it had got completely dark or food was being served.

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I’ve really got to go back there sometime.

Photo Set – Hampton Court

Just down the road (well, trail line) from me is Hampton Court palace, on the bank of the River Thames. So a couple of days ago I decided to go down and check it out before the good weather completely disappears.

It was surprisingly quiet, in fact the busiest part of the area was the river itself with what appeared to be a school rowing team out for practice. Rather than go into the palace grounds, however, I chose to take a walk alongside the river.

The autumn colours were out in force, but there were even plants that were still flowering alongside trees that had lost their leaves completely. This strange mix of weather we’ve had recently has really thrown things for a loop.

Eventually I decided to turn around and head back up the river towards the palace, since if I had kept on walking any further I would have ended up back in Kingston and there was more to get out of Hampton Court. Besides, I had a return ticket to use up.

It was certainly worth turning back as the setting sun lit up the bridge with a golden glow and cast shimmering light over the water.

By the time I reached the other side of the bridge the light had turned to a deeper orange, lighting up the underside of the bridge with its glow.

While the furthest arch was lit up by this fantastic light the others were completely dark thanks to the angle of the sun’s light as it struck the bridge.

Underneath the nearest arch the water was completely black., which created this great abstract silhouette effect.

With no-one around a barely a breath of wind Hampton Court seemed very quiet, much more so than its touristy reputation would lead you to expect, but perhaps that’s to do with the time of year. Still, it’s a beautiful area and seeing it free from hordes of tourists and school trips for once was a nice surprise.

Once again the Panasonic performed very well, and since I went while there was still plenty of light I managed to avoid low-light noise issues. I didn’t put the ISO any higher than 100, and luckily there were plenty of places to rest my camera for longer exposures, although I’ll have to start using my (admittedly cheap) tripod more often as it opens up some more opportunities in terms of the type of shot you can take. I guess I’m still not used to taking it and using it out in public yet, so that’s something to work on.

Still, tripod or not, I think I can call this a pretty successful trip.