December 2, 2008 7:40:55 PM CST
(Newser) – Physicists trying to explain the nature of the universe using the largest particle accelerator ever built are also trying to learn something else: communication skills to help them explain what they’ve learned to the rest of world. And they’re going about it in a unique way, the Wall Street Journal reports—through improv comedy.
The European Organization for Nuclear Research hired improvisational comedy coaches to teach scientists working on the Large Hadron Collider—built in a 17-mile-long tunnel, 330 feet underground along the Franco-Swiss border—to think on their feet. "Improv has got to be more difficult than doing physics. You have to think in milliseconds," one particle physicist says.
Source Wall Street Journal
Sep 23, 08 3:52 PM CDT A serious malfunction, and the necessarily slow progress of repairs, will keep the Large Hadron Collider from starting its first experiments until spring, the Times reports. A major problem Friday shut down the European atom-smasher, and officials said the heating, repair and recooling of the giant magnets would take 2 months. But scheduled winter maintenance will intervene, effectively shuttering the huge experiment into 2009. More »
Sep 20, 08 10:53 AM CDT It turns out that the glitch with the Large Hadron Collider is worse than originally thought and will keep the massive atom smasher out of commission for at least 2 months, the Telegraph reports. The collider, which seeks to replicate the Big Bang and solve mysteries of creation, began to malfunction the day after its first test last week. More »
Sep 19, 08 12:40 PM CDT The Large Hadron Collider, the $5-billion, 17-mile experiment seeking answers to the universe’s deepest mysteries, hit a snag within hours of its Sept. 10 launch, but its overseer did not report the malfunction for a week, the Daily Telegraph reports. A 30-ton transformer in the cooling system broke, causing tests to cease just a day after it fired its first proton beam. More »
Sep 10, 08 5:09 AM CDT The Large Hadron Collider was switched on today and the world did not end, as some doomsayers predicted, Reuters reports. Scientists at CERN in Switzerland now plan to use the giant particle-smashing machine to recreate the conditions of the Big Bang and shed light on the origins of the universe. Interest in the experiments soared after doomsday writers predicted the machine could spawn a black hole and destroy the world. More »
Sep 9, 08 11:00 AM CDT Physicists across the world will spend the wee hours of tomorrow morning watching with bated breath as the world’s most expensive science experiment gets under way, the New York Times reports. At 3:30am Eastern, CERN’s Large Hadron Collider will switch on for the first time, sending particles racing through a 17-mile track underneath Geneva, with nothing less than the core of particle physics at stake. More »
comedy • Large Hadron Collider • particle accelerator • CERN • European Organization for Nuclear Research
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