Casting Mr Higgs

Exactly what sort of headgear do sub-atomic particles wear? This is one of the important issues addressed in an animation about the Large Hadron Collider ( LHC ), the first offering from Oxford Sparks , a new portal giving people access to some of the exciting science happening at Oxford University. In search of the science behind the fun, I asked Alan Barr of Oxford University's Department of Physics, who works at the LHC, about his role as scientific adviser on the animation and coping with a cast of prima donna protons. OxSciBlog: Why do you think we need an animation about the LHC? - Alan Barr: The Large Hadron Collider is one of the inspirational science experiments of our time, but it can be difficult for a non-expert to understand what it is about. Anything which helps make the science accessible - even as a first taste - is a good idea as far as I'm concerned. So when the OxfordSparks team suggested using 'A quick look around the LHC' as a pilot for OxfordSparks.net, I happily agreed to help advise on the science side. OSB: What contribution did you make to the LHC nugget? - AB: I wish I could say I'd done the animation - but thankfully the hard bit was done by Karen Cheung, a really impressive professional animator from the company Jelly. My role as scientific consultant was to try to make sure that, as well as being great fun, the cartoon conveyed as much physics as possible, and as accurately as possible.