LHC Rap

While I was checking out physics graduate programs around the country, I recently stumbled upon this video produced by a Ph.D. physicist, Kate Alpine, at Michigan State U. It describes what the LHC does and what scientists hope to discover from it. Science can be both entertaining and educational!

If you missed the link just paste http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50ZssEojtM into your browser.

Oh! Honestly!

I try to keep up on news and goings on in my field. I am woefully inconsistent in my outside studies, but today I saw this bit of news from the American Institute of Physics about the Large Hadron Collider. Some of you may know more about the hype following the completion of this experiment facility than me as we don't have a TV and I don't really follow the news. It seems that some people believe, contrary to the physics and all reason, that smashing atoms together will produce blackholes which will consume the Earth. This is in spite of the fact that physicists have been smashing atoms for years, though I grant we have not been smashing them together at the kind of speeds LHC was built to attain.

I marvel at how people's minds work sometimes, but if a radio show can create a nation-wide panic about a martian invasion (i.e. War of the Worlds) then it is not so strange that erroneous theories predicting doomsday can gain world wide noteriety.