I know I’ve been silent for a while, but as always, I have a good excuse 😉 . I am in Bautzen, at the far far eastern end of Germany, attending the “Maria Laach Herbstschule fuer Hochenergiephysik”, a fall school on high energy physics. Here, I am giving a a lecture on particle detectors. Actually, I am almost through, tomorrow morning is my last lecture. This is why I can quickly write this post: My slides are now (finally) all done. I covered the basics of particle detectors as well as some of the new developments. Tomorrow, I will also discuss one of the projects I am working on, the development of highly granular calorimetry for the ILC. I also had the chance to learn a bit about cosmology, and to see what some of the students attending the school are working on, so it has been a really worth-while trip. Also, tonight we heard an interesting talk by Konrad Kleinknecht, a retired Professor from Mainz and Munich, on energy and climate change. Following that, we had long, animated discussions about nuclear power, the pros and cons… No need to go into detail here, I’m sure you can imagine what a room full of students can do with a controversial topic. This is by the way also a big issue in the upcoming federal elections in Germany in less than two weeks.
This is the 41st fall school, but the first time it is taking place not in Maria Laach, a cloister at the western end of Germany, due to some scheduling confusions. But Bautzen, the place where also this years CERN summer school took place, is actually quite nice, contrary to what you might think: Most people associate it with the infamous prison for political prisoners in the former GDR. Still, I could not resist to take that picture below… 😉
