LFHS Science teacher, Matt Lowry shares his experience on the Large Hadron Collider at Dragon*Con in Atlanta
October 2009

Dragon*Con is probably the largest science fiction & fantasy convention in the United States.  It takes place over Labor Day weekend every year in Atlanta, GA, and whether you are a fan of Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, or just about any other sci-fi/fantasy genre you can think of, there’s something there for you.  And there’s also some serious science at Dragon*Con.

In addition to a series of talks concerning skepticism, critical thinking, and space, there is an entire track at Dragon*Con dedicated to a variety of scientific issues pitched at the level of consumption for the general public.  Matt Lowry was invited to give a physics talk, and he chose to discuss the Large Hadron Collider, the largest particle accelerator on the planet housed at Europe’s CERN laboratory.  During his talk, he presented the basic physics the LHC was attempting to examine, such as the Standard Model of Particle Physics, the search for the Higg’s Boson, and attempts to re-create the Big Bang under controlled laboratory conditions.  Another section of the talk was devoted to explaining some of the essentials behind the construction & operation of such particle accelerators.  But the third and final section of the talk was by far the most fun: in it he directly addressed the question of whether or not we have anything to fear from turning on the LHC (Hint: the answer starts with “N”).  This last point is particularly relevant because, unfortunately, there has been a lot of pseudoscientific misinformation spread around concerning the supposed dangers of high-energy physics projects such as the LHC, and in order to further a better understanding of & appreciation for science, it is necessary to correct such misinformation.  In the process of explaining, through – of course – a few cool physics calculations, why even the “worst case scenario” wouldn’t be noticeable to inhabitants of the Earth, much fun was had.

The talk garnered so much interest that, despite taking place at 8:30 pm on Friday night during a fun convention, the room was packed (standing room only) with about 150 people attending.  Lastly, this talk has led to Matt Lowry receiving a few offers for podcast interviews via the Internet, even as far away as Australia!