DECAY: CERN PhD students decide zombies best allegory for Higgs Boson

I love science. Even more, I love people who love science so much that they’ll go all undead to get their point across. Even more than that, I love that these students, so excited to tell their Higgs related zombie tale, were not stifled by CERN powers-that-be.

But all joking aside, this research is important, and sharing it with the public is a worthy goal. For this reason, CERN was wise to offer its tacit support of a project that, despite its undead conceit, actually does a better job than any narrative film I have ever seen of introducing a lay audience to the world in which ground-breaking science gets done. DeWilde recalled that while he and his team were “concerned that CERN’s administration wouldn’t appreciate the humor in what we were doing,” they found the lab brass to be “good sports” in the end. “I think CERN recognizes that every time people engage with particle physics, there’s potential for a learning experience,” he said.

Read more from J. Bryan Lowder over at Slate, or just watch the whole thing below.


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