page 6

Hi everybody!

We visited CERN, which is an international physics lab, visited by scientists from 21 member countries. Physicists come from all over the world to smash teeny tiny atomic particles into each other to see what happens. CERN is also where the World Wide Web was INVENTED!

Before they crash these teeny particles into each other, they have to accelerate them almost to the speed of light. They race them around a HUGE underground track that is 27 KM long. When they are going fast enough, they are speeding around the 27 km TEN THOUSAND TIMES A SECOND! I can't even imagine going that fast. Just thinking about it got my antlers in quite a spin. Here is a photo of a photo of what it looks like in the tunnel that houses the track. Every so often they have a detector on the track to see if there have been any collisions.

Here I am, inspecting for quarks! (they are little teeny teeny particles inside an atom. You can't really see them, but I told the scientists that moose COULD see them. Ha ha.)

But you know what? This "super collider" as it is called is not working right now. They are taking it apart to build a NEW one that is even BIGGER! Since the only way they can "steer" atomic particles around is by magnets, what they are building is the world's BIGGEST magnet. Here I am in front of it. It's bigger than our whole classroom!!!! Eventually this whole thing (and even more) will be underground in huge caverns.

I also got to play with this cool "plasma ball" at CERN. Don't I look magical??? Just a couple other photos.

I met the famous Kathy Schrock, who picks out great web sites for teachers. I saw a really neat carousel, which I did NOT get to ride on because this little kid wouldn't get out of the plane.But Stephen and I played video games together in the hotel later on and I cheered right up.On the way home I was wide awake at first. But later on I got tired of watching Pinocchio on the movie screen and put on my Swissair eyeshades and went to sleep. (I'll bring them home so you can try them on.)

When I woke up we were in New York City!

I got a few postcards but pretty soon it was time to get on another plane and fly back to where the Pollys live, near Syracuse. I'm bringing home the postcards and some souvenir pins I've been collecting everywhere I go. I was looking forward to putting my hooves up for awhile, but Mrs Polly had other plans and a couple days later it was back in the backpack for a quick trip to Washington, DC!! In my next letter I'll tell you about my trip to the National Air and Space Museum!!!!!!

Love, Monty