HUM 223: Polyrhythms to particle physics

It was bound to happen. The new Large Hadron Collider recently tested by CERN has been commemorated by a rap video.
(CERN is an acronym for the Conseil Européenne pour la Recherche Nucléaire, or European Council for Nuclear Research, and the collider is the newest and largest particle accelerator used to study the nature of subatomic particles. A story on the video appeared in the online scientific newsletter Vunet.com published in England. And the video is available on YouTube.

Reports Iann Thompson, for Vunet.com:

The video explains what the LHC is and will do to a background beat and features white coated scientist[s] dancing in the collision chamber. It has become a hit on YouTube, logging over 2.5 million hits in less than two weeks.

“Twenty seven kilometers, a tunnel underground, designed with a mind to send protons around,” the song goes.

"A circle that crosses through Switzerland and France, sixty nations contribute to scientific advance.”

The video was shot by Kate MacAlpine - rap name Alpinekat - who is a trainee at CERN.

The science is good. McAlpine holds degrees in physics and writing from Michigan State, and she collaborated with other scientists on the video. The music is OK.