God Particle Symphony: Higgs Boson Gives Us Music
By Seraphina L.
The wonders of the galaxy is bringing us new music through the giant machine that is the ATLAS particle detector, or the “God Particle” finder, which part of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. A machine which focuses on pure data including high energy proton collisions – the forces that are out there in space and matter – are now being used to create sounds which can apparently make some beautiful music.
According to The Christian Science Moniter, experiments though extremely high-tech computers include parts of the Higgs Boson, “the mysterious particle that is believed to give mass to matter and without which no universe would have emerged from the primeval ‘Big Bang’ explosion 13.7 billion years ago.”
Physicist Lily Asquith, who is running the experiments and turning them into sounds claims that “If you use the right software, you can get really nice music out of the particle tracks.” Both scientists and musicians alike are going crazy over these new “symphonic” sounds. The people at LHC are already looking to making the sounds available as ring tones and Apple applications. (Use the sounds of the universe on your iPhone!) Musicians worldwide are begging to get some data files because oddly enough, the pure data can be read though a British-based Computer Desktop Project which is electric-acoustic and sound designer-friendly.
So what’s going to happen next with this major discovery? Will it be used in electronica music, avant-guard music, or rock? Perhaps we won’t be surprised if a band like Radiohead or Arcade Fire attempted to use this data in their songwriting in the future!
What do you think of the “God Particles?”
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 9:38PM
As a scientist, I really don't like the use of naming them "God Particles".
John W.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 11:39PM
Very cool. But … I'm a little bit bemused by spectacularist headlines and interpretations of science like this. For starters, I wish they wouldn't call the Higgs Boson a "God particle." It is one among many (as yet unobserved) kinds of fundamental particles that make up the natural world; there is nothing supernatural about it. Also, of course the Higgs Boson did not give us this music. The music is a man-made translation of arcs into sounds, a language used to describe the particle paths if you will. I think that's very clever, and I'd be curious to hear the music that's been generated this way. But we should be careful how we describe these things to a public that barely understands physics as it is.
Thursday, June 24, 2010 11:15AM
I agree with you two on this article. I hate that they keep calling it the GOD particle or the GOD machine, its not and it never will be, but what do you expect out of the Christian Science News company? I don't expect anything but defacing anything that science has come up with to prove something otherwise that they think God had something to do with. What I don't understand is that how did people not expect this machine to make some kind of noise? All things on this planet make noise or sound waves bounce of objects and the sound will be distorted or bent into a new sound depending on what it hits. So yes this machine will make sounds while its in use and probably makes sounds while it sits there idle. Yup chalk it up to stupidity. By the way there is a difference between morons and idiots, morons are the ones that write this stuff and idiots are the ones that believe it. For example they call it the God machine and idiots will call it that and smart people will know otherwise and laugh at the masses of idiots on this planet. Oh with the Christian science think that this will blow up the planet once they turn it on. oops it didn't happen another reason not to listen to morons. LOL
Thursday, June 24, 2010 7:54PM
I completely agree with Scot on this.. Such superfluous and inaccurate descriptions can and will mislead the average reader.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010 5:33AM
Hmmm, well you all bring some good points about calling it the god particle. But honestly, I think it can be argued that there is nothing supernatural about particles, not specifically the god particles, but particles in general. Many of them exhibit features that could only be described as supernatural to the average person, and though I do believe there may be a physical explanation for the phenomena, it is not fair for the scientist alone to make the philosophical interpretation of the data. Im quite happy with calling it the Higgs Boson, but when I am around people who are less informed on these subjects, I sometimes introduce the higgs as the God particle. It helps illustrate to the average person the importance of finding such a particle.
The music thing sounds cool, though as was said it isnt the true sound of particles moving toward the speed of light, it is still interesting to hear how an audio program would interpret the data.