From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Particle accelerators in popular culture
Particle accelerators in popular culture
Particle accelerators in popular culture is about popular Richard Feynman books
science books, fictional literature, feature films, TV series
and other venues which include particle accelerators as Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!
part of their content. Particle physics, fictional or scien- Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! is an edited collection
tific, is an inherent part of this topic. of reminiscences by the Nobel Prize-winning physicist
Richard Feynman. The book, released in 1985, covers a
Popular science for particle ac- variety of instances in Feynman’s life. Some are light-
hearted in tone, such as his fascination with safe-crack-
celerators ing, fondness for topless bars, and ventures into art and
samba music. Others cover more serious material, includ-
The God Particle ing his work on the Manhattan Project (during which his
first wife Arline Greenbaum died of tuberculosis) and his
critique of the science education system in Brazil.
The Feynman Lectures on Physics
The Feynman Lectures on Physics is a 1964 physics textbook
by Richard Feynman, Robert B. Leighton and Matthew
Sands, based upon the lectures given by Feynman to un-
dergraduate students at the California Institute of Tech-
nology (Caltech) in 1961–63. It includes lectures on math-
ematics, electromagnetism, Newtonian physics, quantum
physics, and even the relation of physics to other sci-
ences. Six readily accessible chapters were later compiled
into a book entitled Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Ex-
plained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher, and six more in Six
Not So Easy Pieces: Einstein’s Relativity, Symmetry and Space-
Time.[3][4]
The first volume focuses on mechanics, radiation, and
A simulated event in the CMS detector, featuring the appear- heat. The second volume is mainly on electromagnetism
ance of the Higgs boson and matter. The third volume, on quantum mechanics,
shows, for example, how the double-slit experiment con-
The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the tains the essential features of quantum mechanics.
Question? is a 1993 popular science book by Nobel Prize-
winning physicist Leon M. Lederman and science writer Large Hadron Collider
Dick Teresi. This book was very popular, a New York The Large Hadron Collider has created a niche in popular
Times, bestseller, which introduced the public to an culture. From real science, which includes the mystery
overview of the science of Particle physics.[1] of the Higgs particle, to justifications for the cost, and
It provides a brief history of particle physics, starting to a thwarted cyber attack, the LHC has received a lot of
with the Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Democritus, and press.[5][6] It has also been the inspiration for popular fic-
continuing through Isaac Newton, Roger J. Boscovich, tional works. See fictional sections below.
Michael Faraday, and Ernest Rutherford. This leads in to
a discussion of the development of quantum physics in
the 20th century. In a nod to the philosophy of atom- Particle accelerators in fiction-
ism, Lederman follows the convention of using the word
"atom" to refer to atoms in their modern sense as the
al literature
smallest unit of any chemical element, and "a-tom" to re-
fer to the actual basic indivisible particles of matter, the
Angels & Demons
quarks and leptons.[2] The novel Angels & Demons, by Dan Brown, involves anti-
matter created at the LHC to be used in a weapon against
the Vatican.[7]
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Particle accelerators in popular culture
Flashforward Flashforward by Canadian science fiction writer Robert J.
Sawyer. It began airing on September 24, 2009.[13]
The novel FlashForward, by Robert J. Sawyer, involves the
search for the Higgs boson at the LHC. CERN published
a "Science and Fiction" page interviewing Sawyer and
The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers
physicists about the book and the TV series based on it.[8] The Galaxy Rangers episode "Trouble at Texton" featured
a particle accelerator on the moon Texton, operated by a
Timescape mad scientist determined to prove the existence of paral-
lel universes.
Timescape is a 1980 novel by science fiction writer Gre-
gory Benford (with unbilled co-author Hilary Foister).
It won the 1980 Nebula and British Science Fiction
The Sparticle Mystery
Awards,[9] and the 1981 John W. Campbell Memorial A particle accelerator is the cause of the adults disap-
Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.[10] The novel was pearing in the CBBC science fiction drama, The Sparticle
widely hailed by both critics of science fiction and main- Mystery.
stream literature for its fusion of detailed character de-
velopment and interpersonal drama with more standard Particle accelerators in video
science fiction fare such as time travel and ecological is-
sues[11] games
Cosm Another World
In Cosm by Gregory Benford, a quark–gluon plasma is cre- In the 1991 video game Another World, the intro shows the
ated in a particle accelerator. It becomes a separate uni- player character works with a particle accelerator. His
verse which evolves from its big-bang to its end in a brief laboratory is struck by lightning and the particle acceler-
period. See details Cosm here. ator malfunctions, teleporting him to an alien world.
Black Hole References
By Angelo Paratico, published in Italy by Mursia in 2007.
A group of physicists try to stop the LHC but fail and a mi- [1] Higgs Boson – the search for the God particle. BBC
cro black hole is formed. It gradually swallows our plan- in our time
et. [2] L&T page 17, 87(atomism) and 5 through 24
[3] "Capturing the Wisdom of Feynman", Physics
Today, Apr 2005, p.49
Particle accelerators in feature [4] Welton, T.A., "Memory of Feynman", Physics Today,
films [5]
Feb 2007, p.46
Popular Science (magazine) articles (2009-11-12).
"Large Haldron Collider articles" (a short summary
Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters 2 of multiple articles about the LHC with links to the
The Ghostbusters proton packs are also called particle main articles.). Popsci (Popular Science).
throwers or unlicensed particle accelerators. Particle ac- http://www.popsci.com/taxonomy/term/26470/
celeration is used to lasso the ghosts for easy entrap- all?page=1. Retrieved 2009-11-12.
ment. [6] Greene, Brian (2008-09-11-). "The Origins of the
Universe: A Crash Course". New York Times: pp. 1.
Angels & Demons http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/12/opinion/
The movie version of the book has footage filmed on-site 12greene.html?_r=2&oref=slogin. Retrieved
at one of the experiments at the LHC; the director, Ron 2009-11-12.
Howard, met with CERN experts in an effort to make the [7] "Angels and Demons". CERN. January 2008.
science in the story more accurate.[12] http://public.web.cern.ch/Public/en/Spotlight/
SpotlightAandD-en.html. Retrieved 2009-09-28.
[8] "FlashForward". CERN. September 2009.
Particle accelerators in TV se- http://flashforward.web.cern.ch/flashforward/.
ries Retrieved 2009-10-03.
[9] "1980 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without
End. http://www.worldswithoutend.com/
Flashfoward
books_year_index.asp?year=1980. Retrieved
FlashForward is an American science-fiction television se- 2009-09-18.
ries airing on ABC. It is loosely based on the 1999 novel
2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Particle accelerators in popular culture
[10] "1981 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without the familiar human perceptions and problems of its
End. http://www.worldswithoutend.com/ characters. Timescape offers both scientific and
books_year_index.asp?year=1981. Retrieved humanistic perspectives on the nature of reality."
2009-09-18. pg 486, Susan Stone-Blackburn
[11] "Timescape is a genuine marriage of science and [12] Ceri Perkins (June 2, 2008). "ATLAS gets the
literature...Bridging the two cultures of scientists Hollywood treatment". ATLAS e-News. http://atlas-
and humanists, it provides an intriguing vision of service-enews.web.cern.ch/atlas-service-enews/
reality suggested by contemporary physics, and news/news_angelphoto.php. Retrieved
also an absorbing portrayal of people facing 2009-09-28.
challenges both scientific and personal. Benford [13] "ABC.com – FlashForward – Home". Abc.go.com.
suggests parallels between the unfamiliar concepts http://abc.go.com/primetime/flashforward/.
of modern physics that are central to its plot and Retrieved 2009-09-25.
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