LHCsound brings the noise, asks how low Higgs boson can go

God particle. The Champagne bottle boson. Non-existon. Mysteron. The Higgs boson particle is certainly known by a lot of names, and now we can add another to the list: rock god. The UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council has created "LHCsound: the sound of science." It's a series of (confusingly organized) pages offering acoustic renditions of the Large Hadron Collider's greatest hits, like proton collision, detector sweeps, and, our favorite, simulated Higgs Boson delay, which you can hear after the break. The data created by the energy and frequency of particle decay is used to modify the sound of running water, resulting in a generally creepy effect. We think it'd be perfect for accompanying your next foggy exploration of Silent Hill, but perhaps the next episode of Half Life 2 would be more appropriate.

[Thanks, John C.]

HiggsJetSimple by TimStevens

[wingm4n Posted Jun 29th 2010 11:19AM]

i'm trying to come up with lyrics to go with it, this is what i have so far:
"I don't exist and the universe is not expanding... ding... ding ding.......ding..."

[samisax Posted Jun 29th 2010 11:19AM]

this is actually quite cool..

i heard some nice chords in there..

[Smart People Play Tuba Posted Jun 29th 2010 11:32AM]

Reminds me of some of that really out-there avant garde classical music I studied in college: Karlheinz Stockhausen, Edgard Varese, et al.

Good stuff (cerebrally-speaking), but not the kind of thing you rock to in the car.

[Leobons Posted Jun 29th 2010 9:08PM]

@Smart People Play Tuba Actually if I knew that was made by Stockhausen and noisemakers like, I would say it sucks but since it's the LHC it's awesome

[xiso Posted Jul 1st 2010 4:07PM]

@Smart People Play Tuba
Well then we just have to make a remix so you could rock to it in the car, lol.

[Joe Cool Posted Jun 29th 2010 11:22AM]

If my memory serves me correctly, wasn't it Mysteron that defeated Professor Chaos and General Dissarray while they were trying to blow up a hospital?

[pavlindrom Posted Jun 29th 2010 11:24AM]

How did they distort it? If it's only made slower, then it's quite intriguing to me that that is what I've been hearing every time water ran, I guess. If it's something else... I don't know.

[xxxsam Posted Jun 29th 2010 3:42PM]

@pavlindrom:

There's an explanation on the site (yeah it's horrible to navigate, so no surprise you didn't find it), along with the original running-water sound. Here's the explanation:

The sound of the stream is shifted upwards in pitch by 1000 Hz and time stretched 4 times (5 seconds becomes 20). This sound is then modulated in pitch and amplitude by the dR and energy values respectively. The shifts between left and right speakers (pan location) are controlled by the energy data: low level signal going to the left, and high level signal (much less frequent) going to the right.

The reason for doing this is... um... a little less clear. Why start with running water? Why not a car alarm, or a chainsaw, or...

[Smart People Play Tuba Posted Jun 29th 2010 11:28AM]

"LHCsound brings the noise"

. . . but does it also bring the Funk?

[samisax Posted Jun 29th 2010 5:32PM]

@Smart People Play Tuba

No. We got the Funk.

[Passarinhuu Posted Jun 29th 2010 12:01PM]

I can already see this effect being used in the next NIN (Nine Inch Nails) album... :D

[ravissimo Posted Jun 30th 2010 2:16AM]

@Passarinhuu if they ever come out with another album....*tear*

[DoctarPeppar Posted Jun 29th 2010 12:31PM]

All hail the LHC!
http://www.cyriak.co.uk/lhc/lhc-webcams.html

[seaduck13 Posted Jun 29th 2010 12:47PM]

Is it just me or doesnt this stuff sound like Earthbound for SNES?

[erwin Posted Jun 29th 2010 12:48PM]

i am no fanboy...but i read about this and heard these sounds about a couple of month ago on gizmodo...

[Echuu Posted Jun 29th 2010 12:50PM]

Is this the LHC Vuvuzela?

[izzykareem Posted Jun 29th 2010 12:58PM]

i vote for: 3yr-old-left-alone-with-yamaha-keyboard

[engadgetcomexcludeengadget Posted Jun 29th 2010 1:05PM]

Tim Stevens writing an article about Tim Stevens. Coincidence? I think not...

[engadgetcomexcludeengadget Posted Jun 29th 2010 1:09PM]

Nevermind, I just realized that wasn't the source. =o

[David Topping Posted Jun 29th 2010 1:42PM]

A bit too Schönberg for me ... I always thought the sound of the LHC was this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50ZssEojtM