Posts tagged coffee

You thought that it was extravagant, the life of a particle physicist at CERN.  You thought that daily life in Geneva was chock full of fancy watches, lavish cars, endless mounds of fondue, and the best croissants money can buy.  You thought that the work being carried out here at the lab was nothing if not the most pertinent and revolutionary.  You thought, “Man, I’d give anything to work at CERN.”

Think again.

Picture this: 50 sq. meters, 60 computer screens, and the guarantee that you’ll be spending the next eight hours of your life holed up here.  Tonight, you are on shift.  Tonight, from 11pm until 7am, you will be devoting your time to making sure that the detector is functioning properly.  Don’t get too excited about this — you won’t actually have any control.  Actually, if some component of your system enters a FAIL state, there are only a few options you have before you have to call a detector expert.  None of those options will work, I guarantee you.  So, you’ll call the Expert.  And, no, she won’t be happy to help you, now that it’s 2.17am.  But, you’ll survive.

The shifter's local coffee shop.

Then, around 5.27am, you’ll grow tired of nodding off at your bank of PC screens.  You’ve been keeping an eye on the detector (it’s fine), keeping an eye on the data coming from the detector (it’s fine), and keeping an eye on that cute girl working a few desks away (she’s fine).  But, it’s all you can do to stay awake, so you have to pull a lifeline.  Coffee sounds nice, so you head to the nearest coffee shop, two floors above you.  Shortly after struggling your cup free from this machine’s deathgrip, you’re well on your way to an ecstasy-laden morning.  Best. Coffee. Ever.

At the end of your grueling eight hour shift, you can hardly remember why you had such adverse opinions about the job.  One night of pretty boring nothingness (plus a few calls to your favorite detector experts) is hardly worth quitting over.  But, then, you remember: this happens again the next night.  And the next.  Night shifts always come in 3′s…just like the best things in life.

In actuality, being on shift at CERN is a rather important task, and it’s a great way to contribute to the various experiments conducted on the LHC.  But, I mean, come on…

Okay, it’s not the worst job; it’s second only to the job of an Expert.

If you’re still interested, and want to live alongside some other shifters, have a look at these webcams:

CMS
ATLAS

Also, it’s important to keep in mind that even Tom Hanks has been on shift.