If you’re watching this video, there’s a good chance that you’ve seen some of my
other videos.
They’re on the Fermilab YouTube channel- and make sure you subscribe to it by the way.
So you know that I’m all about particle physics.
I make these videos to share these exciting topics with as broad an audience as possible.
And I do okay with the adult population, but I got to wondering how well I was doing with
teenagers.
Luckily, I work at one of the most high tech labs in the world and we built a prototype
encephelographotron, a powerful mindreading device and tested it on teenagers while listening
to me speak to see what they were hearing.
Now, for anyone who has ever been a parent, or a teen, for that matter- the outcome is
probably unsurprising.
For instance, when I was saying something like
…this is the coolest thing ever.
We can literally recreate the conditions of the Big Bang and understand how the universe
came into existence.
Can you imagine that…
What the kids were actually hearing was-
Blah blah blah video games blah blah will he ever stop talking?
blah blah I wonder what’s for lunch?
blah blah…
So I decided that I needed to try something new to reach the desirable, although somewhat
frustrating, teen demographic.
So I enlisted the help of Russell Farnsworth, a teenager and winner of the “Rock the LHC”
video contest to help me tell teens just how cool particle physics is.
Now I should warn you, I picked him because he’s totally awesome at this and you can
tell just by looking at him that he’s super cool.
Hi Russell.
Hi Don.
Nice outfit!
The difference is that I make it look good.
Um, yeah, alright, so let me tell you how to talk to people about science-
Don.
Yeah?
I got this.
Are you sure?
Because I could tell you some-
No, seriously- I got this.
You’re sure?
I’m sure.
Alright, bye…
Man, I thought that guy would never leave.
I heard that!
Okay- let me tell you why particle physics is awesome.
First, particle physics tells us how the universe works- from tiny atoms to how stars burn.
Basically, if you know particle physics, you know about the science that everything else
comes from.
That’s pretty cool.
But it’s not like these scientist dudes know everything.
There are tons of things they haven’t figured out yet.
One thing is called dark matter.
Basically, it seems like there is a new kind of matter that nobody has seen yet.
It doesn’t interact with regular matter at all.
You can’t see it, smell it, taste it, hear it, nothing.
And there’s five times more of it than regular matter.
That means somebody will discover it.
It could be one of the old guys.
I heard that!
Or maybe someone from our generation will be the one.
Then there’s antimatter.
Antimatter sounds like something from a science fiction movie, but it’s totally real.
If you combine a paperclip’s worth of antimatter with regular matter, you’d get a huge explosion.
So the mystery arises because of the theory of the Big Bang and Einstein’s theory of
relativity says that there should be an equal amount of matter and antimatter just floating
around.
But there is no antimatter and nobody knows why.
That’s another cool mystery.
There are lots of other mysteries and scientists are developing the technology to be able to
answer those questions.
It could take another twenty years to figure it all out.
That means one of the old guys will design the equipment.
I heard that!
But we will be the generation that figures it all out.
So, how did it go?
Pretty good.
I talked about a few things.
You should have been there to take notes.
Alright, maybe next time.
So are you totally stoked about science?
Yeah, pretty much.
I’m still trying to figure out which thing to work on, but I’ll be able to figure that
out once I’m out of college.
Well, figuring out that question can be hard, but there are certainly lots of cool questions
to answer.
And- here’s the cool thing- there are still questions to ask.
Being a scientist is pretty amazing.
Word.
That is cool- you know, you gotta talk to my producer, because I told him that saying
“word” was utterly cool, and now you’ve proved it, so can you talk to him and tell
him that, you know, I was right all along?
No, just kidding.
Nobody says word.
Are you sure, because I think it’s really cool, I mean-
No, just, just…
no.
Well, can we at least agree that science is totally cool?
We can agree that science is totally cool.
Alright, high five!
Now, can we also agree that I’m totally cool?
Um… sure, let’s go with that.
So you think it’s funny to be tested on, huh?
How about this?
Or that one?
Does this one feel good?
No?
It doesn’t?
What about this one?
Huh?