ATLAS e-News
23 February 2011
Incubus guitarist thinks ATLAS rocks
1 July 2008
Mike Einziger (right) with Brian Cox of ATLAS (left)
Many of us here at ATLAS think the potential for the LHC to tackle some of physics’ biggest unanswered questions is pretty rock ‘n’ roll. But it’s nice to know that a real life rock star – a breed of celebrity perhaps more commonly associated with smashing up hotel rooms than protons – thinks that the ATLAS experiment is pretty damn cool too.
Mike Einziger, lead guitarist of American rock band Incubus, visited CERN on Friday 13 June as he travelled between performances in Finland and England. His interest in the LHC was sparked when he saw online lectures by University of Manchester-based ATLAS physicist Brian Cox, who was more than happy to accompany the musician on his tour of point 1 with offical guide Chris Thomas. According to Brian, Einziger commented afterwards that visiting ATLAS had been "truly an honour and a privilege".
“He’s got a very strong interest in science,” adds Brian, “as well as a passion for publicising science in the US, where I know he feels that too few young people are interested in, or even aware of, things like CERN.”
Einziger spoke of how he'd been fascinated by science from a young age, but was caught up in his professional music career after signing a recording contract as soon as he finished high school. Over a decade on, he now plans to begin a music degree at Harvard at the start of the next academic year, and says he will be on the look out for opportunities to learn more about science during his time there.
He has already taken one step in trying to bring together these two loves: composing a piece of orchestral music inspired by science, which will be performed at the University of California, Los Angeles on August 23rd this summer. Brian will be one of the lucky few to hear the piece on its debut – he’ll be introducing the performance with a talk about CERN.
