CERN is a pretty interesting place to work, probably more so than other physics laboratories around the world, due to its highly international nature. Here is a nice graphic of the nationalities of all CERN users:
In no place is the international nature of the laboratory more evident than in the main cafeteria on site. While most of the conversations are in English, you can usually hear bits of conversation in other languages. I personally like to play the ‘guess what language that table is speaking’ game, though it’s a little frustrating as I can’t just go over and ask to check if I have it right or not.
Whatever the language the conversation is in, you can be sure that the most discussed topic is physics. In fact, a lot of important discussions occur over a drink or a bite to eat. It’s just easier to discuss issues in an informal setting with less people than a more formal video conference.
Probably due to this fact, I think there is a slight fascination with the cafeteria from the media. Every couple of weeks there is usually a film crew in there, filming people eating and talking for whatever feature they are producing.
USLHC has decided to join in on the cafeteria action, having intern Amy Dusto set up LHC Lunch, a series of articles and videos sourced from lunch time interviews with members of the LHC experiments working for US institutes.
Why do I bring all of this up? Well, I was one of the physicists whom she interviewed, and my article and video has just been published. Check it out here. Enjoy!
