Science and Society - the example of the LHC Mike Green Royal Holloway University of London

ECFA 11 May 2007 STFC Science and Society  In 2006/7 PPARC S&S budget was about £1.2M.  Promoting the LHC is part; budget about £700k over four years.  Strategy is overseen by a group of physicists and communication experts.  Strategy document at Ed/LHCCom.asp. Ed/LHCCom.asp Ed/LHCCom.asp

ECFA 11 May 2007 Key audiences  Public: all sections but with emphasis on those interested in science and technology. They fund us.  Students and their teachers: emphasis on 14 – 16 but also gifted 12 – 14 and those 16 – 18. We want to support science in schools.  Policy makers and opinion formers (MPs, House of Lords, government policy makers, …). They make or influence funding decisions.

ECFA 11 May 2007 Formative evaluation  We need to know how to be effective in our engagement with people by listening to them not by guessing.  Formative evaluation carried out by consultants in 2007 with focus groups from: “scientifically inclined” public, teachers and pupils.  Report available at

ECFA 11 May 2007 Public perceptions/interest  Key area: ‘origins of the universe’, ‘Big Bang’.  General ignorance of antimatter and dark matter.  Words ‘physics’ and ‘particle physics’ daunting.  Most thought “Why does matter have mass?” and “How gravity works” already known.  Some felt LHC not relevant to their lives but interested in spin-off, particularly medical.  Cost is not a big issue.

ECFA 11 May 2007 Key messages  One of the biggest projects ever in science.  Addresses fundamental questions about the universe.  International collaborative venture; UK has a major role.  Valuable technological spin-offs.  We wish the public to share the excitement we feel.  Young people can be part of such activities if they study physics.  British industry benefits.  For reasonable public investment we will learn much about how the universe works.

ECFA 11 May 2007 Key elements  Appoint a project manager  TV and radio coverage: –Target: two major terrestrial and three non-terrestrial TV programmes; –News and daytime TV and radio coverage.  National schools programme: –Briefings and support material for teachers; –Visits to schools; –National lecture tours.

ECFA 11 May 2007 Key elements  Major exhibitions: Science Museum Apr – Sep  Public events in science centres etc.  Receptions for VIPs and opinion formers  Website at

ECFA 11 May 2007 Press activity Guardian – 27 March 2006: “In praise of... Cern” Buried deep in granite under the border between France and Switzerland, the biggest and most expensive scientific experiment on earth is nearing completion. Working at temperatures colder than deep space, the 27km-long Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will, when it is first fired up next year, reshape what is known about the origins of the universe. The flagship project of Cern, the international particle physics laboratory whose expertise is so wide-ranging that it invented the world wide web as a sideline and gave it away free, the LHC is an uplifting example of international cooperation achieving what no single country could manage … it brings together 6,400 scientists from around the globe. … The aim is to find and explore dark matter, the unknown type of matter which dominates the universe. Cern's scientists talk of finding new dimensions. The specialism is so extraordinary that the consequences are near impossible for non-experts to comprehend: but what is found at Cern in the next few years could change the world.

ECFA 11 May 2007 Legacy  A new generation of particle physicists trained to work with the media and schools  A larger group of journalists aware and supportive of particle physics and willing to write about it  Increased political support for particle physics  Increased awareness in UK industry of the commercial opportunities at CERN

ECFA 11 May 2007 A tunnel to the beginning of time