​What CERN Employees Do in Their Spare Time

Everyone needs to unwind after a long, hard day smashing particles. Maybe a nice game of billiards, or a spot of orienteering?

The CERN Bulletin is a weekly newsletter about all things of interest around the world's largest particle physics lab, at the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Switzerland. The newsletter is a great way to catch the latest on the upcoming reboot of the Large Hadron Collider, but it also gives an insight into the broader lives of the people who work at CERN.

The latest b​ulletin reports on the process of bringing the LHC up to its new beam energy of 16 TeV and also announces the new use of argon ions in the Super Proton Synchrotron, another particle accelerator. Alongside that, however, there's a notice on Swiss taxation and an ad for summer jobs for kids of CERN workers.

And it shines a spotlight on the organisation's extracurricular clubs, of which there are almost ​50. CERN sells the volunteer-led clubs as a great way to integrate into the community, practice language skills, and spread the good word about CERN (the local community is also able to attend the clubs).

So what do CERN's 2,500-some staff ​members get up to in their spare time? The offerings are varied. There's pretty much every sport you can think of, including croquet and fly fishing, and other groups around mutual appreciation of pastimes including jazz, photography, and one group just for fans of aquariums.

Then there are the nerdier groups you can imagine getting pretty intense when they count particle physicists in their number, like an astronomy club that describes itself as a place to "do visual observation, deep sky and planetary imagery as well as to exchange knowledge on astrophotograhy, astrophysics and astronomy in general." Casual. CERN's Solar Club, which doesn't appear to have been active in a while, used to develop and race its own solar​-powered car.

Other highlights include a board games club, a technical modelling club that boasts members with "expertise in aircraft, helicopters and ground based models, using both electric and internal combustion powering schemes for their models," and a club that lists intense-sounding talks and presentations under its name "ConCERNed for Humanity."

"Becoming a member of one of those clubs will enable you to carry out your preferred hobbies and interests and at the same time, it will enhance your non-professional relations amongst other colleagues working at CERN and also facilitate your (and your family's) integration in the local area," the piece expl​ains, just in case people need to be persuaded to have fun.

The list of clubs might not exactly debunk a whole load of stereotypes about scientists, but it's nice to know even CERN staff know how to take some time out to relax—in their own way.