Question: How do you celebrate the culmination of 14 years of work to build the world’s largest particle accelerator?
Answer: By rapping (and bad dancing.)
Yes, the Large Hadron Collider, that 17-mile ring under the Swiss and French Alps, is fast approaching its official launch date a week from tomorrow. And while scientists have been running tests and warming up its accelerators to prepare for the day, something else has been heating up: an online video of a rap about the LHC, created by Kate McAlpine of Michigan State University.
The video has been online for at least a month now, but only recently did it become one of the biggest hits on YouTube. It’s hard to say just what piece of this magical musical concoction has led to its worldwide popularity. Is it the knowingly awful background dancers, who are credited at the end as “prefer anonymity?” Or maybe the ultra-hip safety goggles? Perhaps it’s the infectious physics rhymes, like the following:
You see particles flying, in jets they spray
But you notice there ain’t nothin’, goin’ the other way
You say, “My law has just been violated – it don’t make sense!
There’s gotta be another particle to make this balance.”
And it might be dark matter, and for first
Time we catch a glimpse of what must fill most of the known ‘Verse.
Outstanding. And according to the CERN leaders working at LHC, the science is spot-on. Take a listen:
Image: flickr/bettybraun
