Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Theoretical physics inspires art!

No I'm not thinking of the appearance of Bagger-Lambert as a sandwich in Ian MacEwan's Solar. Yesterday Radiohead thanked those of us who bought their album "In Limbs" in mp3 format by giving away two extra songs for free, one of which is called "Supercollider". Unbeknownst to the theoretical physics community the group have been playing it live for a couple of years as you can see from the video link above. The lyrics are pasted below and are inspired, I presume, by some theoretical physics jargon... but how long do we have to wait for a song about supersymmetry? I know Muse have already sung about supermassive black holes, but that was not short for supersymmetric massive black hole as far as I know and there is a band called Slept On the Couch, but I do not think they have intentionally named themselves after a breed of superparticles :) Maybe some physicists out there could form a tribute band called SuSy and the Banshees. They could do a version of Peggy Sue, Peggy SuSy. Or "Killing (spinor) in the name of" by Rage Against the (LHC) Machine? We wait patiently with hope.
Super collider
Dust in a moment
Particles scatter
Parting from the soup

Swimming upstream
Before the heavens crack open
Thin pixelations
Coming out from the dust

In a blue light
In a green light
In a half light
In a work light

In a B-spin
Flip flopping
In a pulse wave
Outstepping

To put the shadows back into
The boxes

I am open
I am welcome
For a fraction
Of a second

I have jettisoned my illusions
I have dislodged my depressions

I put the shadows back into
The boxes