Inside the CMS - Double Bill

I'm only part way through editing and uploading a bunch of videos we filmed at CERN, in Geneva.

However two of the main films from the CMS Experiment have now been released (above is a pic of us on the way in).

CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) is one of the two more famous detectors on the Large Hadron Collider.

The other one, at the opposite side of the ring, is called ATLAS.

We visited both.

(No disrespect to ALICE and LHCb experiments - I hope they'll invite us back one day!)

Here's the recently uploaded video about CMS, including the first time Professor Ed Copeland laid eyes on the huge machine.



And here, as a DVD extra, is an uncut video from when I gave my camera to a member of CMS staff who was able to enter parts of the machine which were restricted for visitors like us!!!

Some cool Nobel Prize stuff

Today the Nobel Prize in Physics was announced.

The 2011 winners were Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt and Adam Riess for discovering the accelerating expansion of the universe through the study of supernovae.

Each year Sixty Symbols tries to make videos about the announcement.

This year was easy because some of our Nottingham-based astronomers actually knew the winners.

In fact, our own Mike Merrifield is on quite good terms with co-winner Brian Schmidt.

In our video, Mike sheepishly admits he has doubted an aspect of Brian's work and the two have a long-standing bet about it.

With the Nobel Prize committee's verdict now pubic, Mike concedes he owes his old friend a bottle of whisky.



But there's another fascinating link with today's prize and Sixty Symbols.

Another of our regular contributors and fan favourites - Professor Ed Copeland - was cited in the Nobel Prize committee's announcement (see image).


Unfortunately Ed was not in Nottingham today so I couldn't interview him - but I'll try to catch him soon and find out what it's all about!

Irish Luck

I'm just back from a brief but successful trip to Dublin, in Ireland.

The main reason was to give a public talk at the Science Gallery.

It was about making science films and, as always, I enjoyed the opportunity to discuss my work.

I also checked out the gallery's excellent "Elements" exhibition, which runs until September 23.

It was really good and any science buff will love it. Worth a cheap flight to Dublin if you can afford it!!!

I was joined on the trip by two of our Irish science stars - Phil Moriarty from Sixty Symbols and Darren Walsh from periodicvideos.

The pair helped me out with a few films we'll be posting in the coming weeks.

Professor Moriarty did three (or "tree", as he would say in his Irish lilt).

We discussed Erwin Schrödinger at the lecture theatre bearing his name at Trinity College.

We also discussed Ireland's only science Nobel Prize winner - Edwin Walton.

And of course we did a video about Guinness, the famous Irish drink which is jam-packed with interesting science stuff.

Dr Walsh joined me at the Science Gallery exhibit I mentioned above, and we'll have some videos coming soon about periodic tables and elements.

They should be fun and will include a few little "gimmicks" that I think chemistry fans will love, including a really cool platinum sample and a periodic table in Braille!

PS: We didn't drink the Guinness - neither Professor Moriarty or I are particularly fond of it!