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103. The Journey of Joe the Photon: A Blues Tale Sandro Bardelli, Francesco Poppi, INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, Italy

Band: Gabriele Cocozza 1, Matteo Correnti 2, Cristiano de Boni 3, Paolo Donati 1, Carlo Giocoli 3, Loredana Lovisi 3, Federico Marulli 3, Fernanda Petracca 3, Antonio Sollima 1, Laura Schreiber 1, Margherita Talia 1, Stefania Varano 4

1 INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna; 2 INAF-Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica; 3 Dip. Astronomia, Universita’ di Bologna; 4 INAF-Istituto di Radioastronomia

Hi,

I’m Joe...

And I’m a photon.

I’m Joe the photon.

I was born in that turbulent madhouse

called BIG BANG….now, I will tell you my story, which started from far away

and in a very remote time.

Introduction

The show is the dramatisation of the journey of a photon from the Big Bang to the Earth. His voice describes what he encounters during his path along the history of the Universe through the various epochs. The tale is mixed with famous blues songs performed by a band of 14 members, all PhD students or post-docs in astronomy. The songs have been chosen on the basis of connection with the text in terms of argument and rhythm and are intended to rouse the attention of public and to give a break to the narration. Moreover, during the show we projected silent movies with short explanations of the things that Joe is saying. Two short clips from movies (Annie Hall by Woody Allen and from the Simpsons series) are also part of the show.

Three novels from Cosmicomics of Italo Calvino are read because these are an additional source of dramatised explanations of the various concepts.

For students of a school (secondary level, i.e. college) the ideal thing to do is to have a pre-show or a post-show lecture on the presented concepts to be discussed with experts (pos-sibly the astronomers of the band).

12th International Conference on Public Communication of Science and Technology (PCST),Florence,Italy,18-20 April 2012.Published as book chapter in:Bucchi, M.,&Trench,B.(Eds.)(2012).Quality,Honesty and Beauty in Science and Technology Communication: PCST 2012 Book of Papers (Proceedings of the 12th International Conference"Public Communication of Science and Technology", Florence, Italy, 18-20 April 2012).Vicenza: Observa Science in Society,pp.431-433.

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The plot

The show starts with the song Hey Joe to introduce Joe the Photon. On the screen: photons

The Pre-Big Bang epoch

Joe is plunged in the quantistic chaos.

Song: dissonance. Screen: television white noise

Novel: All at One Point

The first three minutes

Particles and photons are strongly interacting each others. Particles and atoms are formed. It is a very “rhythmic” epoch.

Song: Everybody Needs Somebody to Love. Screen: lot of particles and photons colliding.

The dark age

Music stops suddenly. Joe sees the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) in the dark. The rhythm should be slow and repetitive. Song: Somewhere over the Rainbow Screen: Wmap satellite image of the CMB.

Then the dark age begins. It is an age dominated by dark matter. The photons are no more interacting with the matter and are on a straight path.

Song: On the Road Again Screen: Dark Matter maps

The first stars and galaxies

This epoch starts with the novel “At the Day break”.

The rhythm accelerates. Song: Hit the Road Jack Screen: formations of star.

The expansion of the Universe

Joe notes that the Universe expanded a lot.

Screen: first a movie with the cosmic expansion, then Annie Hall.

Joe arrives at the Milky Way and at Earth

Song: Sweet Home Chicago. Screen: journey in our Galaxy and around the Earth

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Fate of Joe

There are two versions depending on the requested duration of the show.

In the first one, Joe ends his life in one telescope. In the second version, Joe is reflected back by a mirror and realises that he will run for all his life until an atom or molecule will absorb him.

Song: Johnny B. Goode Screen: a running man.

Finale

The finale explains the future of the Universe with the novel The Light Years. Then the short clip from The Simpsons is presented, ending with the sentence, “Well we hit a little snag when the universe sort of collapsed on itself. But Dad seemed cautiously optimistic”. Just after Homer’s scream, the song ‘I Shot the Sheriff’ starts. On the screen, pictures of famous astronomers of the past and of the members of the band are shown.

Conclusions

The show is tough to offer to a young public, being at the same time a concert, a theatre play and a science outreach lecture. The initiative seems to be successful, in terms of people attending and satisfaction. The main problems are related to the cost of moving 14 band members, instrument rental and royalties. For this reason, the best places for this show are within events or science festivals. We choose to play famous songs rather to write our own royalty-free music, because we are not musicians and composers, and we realised the risk of performing music not adapted to the musical taste of young people.

“The only thing I know, is that I was damned to run, for all my life…to run at the speed of light, because, after all, light is me.”