Rightly or wrongly, scientists often get stereotyped as bookish and boring, so it's refreshing to see concrete proof that the opposite is just as often true. Today, that confirmation comes from the folks behind the Large Hadron Collider, the particle accelerator at CERN in Switzerland.
The LHC, as it's known to its friends, is a collaborative effort involving thousands of scientists from over 60 different countries. Physicists hope it will unearth the elusive Higgs boson, among other things. Just as importantly, there's also the hope that, contrary to the claims of some critics, firing the LHC won't accidently create a black hole or something similar under Geneva.
Right now the LHC is being readied for operation, and to celebrate the firing of the first beam on September 10th, Fermilab are hosting a pajama party to celebrate. Nearly 300 people have signed up to watch the LHC fire up from Fermi, which will be heavily involved in coordinating US-based LHC data analysis.
But the levity doesn't end there; there's also a fantastic example of clever science outreach in the form of the LHC rap, which combines elements of nerdcore (in the vein of MC Chris), the James Brown "Woo, Yeah!" break most famously used by Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock, and footage of physicists having too much fun in the bowels of the LHC. Although amusing in and of itself, the LHC rap also does a pretty good job of explaining just what the LHC is for and what the different bits do. More please!