Shake your boson, Higgs!

The big buzz among physicists these days is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, outside Geneva, designed to give us big insights about what happened right after the Big Bang that created the universe we know and love. And when I say right after, I mean millionths of a second afterwards, which was apparently when all the really important action took place. Of course, there are those who fear that the LHC will bring about the end of the world, but at least we'll go out knowing more about how we all got here.

Anyway, a very cool chick named Kate McAlpine has put together a YouTube rap (see above) about the LHC, which is entertaining and oh so educational for people like me who, despite my scientific training, are primary particle challenged and in the dark about dark matter, black holes, and anything that required paying attention in physics class (aw, shucks, I actually took two years of physics but I don't think my profs understood this stuff any better than I did.)

More about LHC: One of our graduate students in the Science and Medical Journalism Program at Boston University, Nuño Dominguez, has posted a very interesting Question & Answer on the Science Metropolis site with MIT Nobel laureate physicist Frank Wilczek. There's lots to be learned, and no danger of doomsday, Wilczek says.