The Hip Hop of Physics

isfjell — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:02:59 +0200

Throughout the past few decades, a number of books, TV-programs etc. has been published, who explore the physical aspects of different popular cultural phenomena. I can mention f.ex. "The Physics of Star Trek" by Lawrence M. Krauss, "The Physics of Superheroes" by James Kakalios, "The physics of Superman", and so on and so forth.

An area that has been rather less explored is the opposite - the cultural aspects of the area of physics. This small collection of links will try to rectify that. It is to little wonder that the perhaps two most advanced subjects of different areas should find each other, and mix together into an exellent synthesis. Despite this little has been written about the Hip Hop of Physics.

Hip Hop is arguably the highets developed musical artform of our time, as physics on its side is the true essence of modern science. It is therefore no wonder that we are at an ever increasing rate starting to see the mix of these two artforms around us in our society.

The latest such synthesis comes in connection with the current upstart of the Large Hadron Collider in CERN. It should not be a surprise that the best presentation of the LHCs objectives comes in the form of hip hop.

Large Hadron Rap: The CERN phycisists hip hop presentation of the LHC.

This group has previousley published the "N3UROCH!P Rap" about the two physicists from Tel Aviv who imprinted rudimentary memories onto a network of living neurons. Perhaps this could be the starting point for a series of cd's ("Absolute physics"?) to replace a few of the overpriced physics journals?

Exiting and new: Another neurochip of the block

This exiting new physics/hip hop group could perhaps push the infamous MC Hawking of the Hip Hop physics throne, but I think the jury is still out on that one. Hawkings career has been long, and he has been known not to let violence get in the way of stopping anyone trying to take over as the no. 1 physics gangster rapper.

No collection of hip hop physics videos would be complete without some MC Hawking, so here you have the video from "What We Need More Of Is Science", and the promotional video for the album "A brief History of Rhyme". Both animated classics.

Also remember to search youtube for fan videos.

After this brief introduction to the hip hop of physics, it is only fair to leave some room in closing to the pioneers who paved the way for this artform. The entrance of science into music, and the use of music to convey scientific knowledge has long and deep cultural roots. I therefore find it suiting to end this short display with Eric Idles classic "Galaxy song" in which tremendous amounts of astrophysical knowledge is conveyed in only a couple of minutes.

Whenever life gets you down, Mrs. Brown...

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The Hip Hop of Physics