News about the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) dominated radio and television coverage last week when the world’s largest machine and most powerful atom-smasher went live, an event scientists worldwide have dreamed about for 20 years. This multibillion-dollar project, which attempts to re-enact the Big Bang, has been something I’ve been following very closely the past year since CERN used National Instruments hardware and our software LabVIEW to develop a motion control system capable of intercepting misguided or unstable particle beams (check out this customer solution).
Not everyone shared my excitement for the big day. Many feared that the European Centre for Nuclear Research in Switzerland would create an Earth-destroying black hole when the machine turned on. Of course, the YouTube community was there to set things straight. To explain the facts, 23-year-old Kate McAlpine, a Michigan State graduate and CERN employee, produced the Large Hadron Rap, which to date has gotten more than three million views on YouTube.
Luckily, the NI viral video series, An Engineering Mind, had it’s own take on the CERN supercollider and we were able to post this timely video, which features my partner in crime in the online community efforts, Todd Sierer. Check it out!
CERN also made Steven Colbert’s ThreatDown list: http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/full-episodes/index.jhtml?episodeId=185055