Numb3rs to DZero
On the hit television show Numb3rs, where crimes are solved with math and science, cosmologist and theoretical physicist Larry Fleinhardt has lived in a monastery and flown into space searching for a sense of purpose. The next step takes him to Fermilab.
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Fleinhardt, played by actor Peter MacNicol, told nine million viewers in January that he had accepted an offer to join the lab's DZero experiment, calling it “the work of a lifetime.”
An earlier episode had him describing the job this way: “Can you imagine? Smashing protons at 99.99 percent of the speed of light, all to locate a single fragment which would move us one step closer to unifying all physics, explaining how the Old One created the universe? Ah, what could be more spiritual?”
DZero is one of two experiments at the Tevatron accelerator that are racing to find the Higgs boson, a theoretical particle thought to endow other particles with mass. That search for one of the Holy Grails of particle physics attracted the attention of the show's writers.
Fleinhardt plays both sidekick and mentor to Numb3rs mathematician Charlie Eppes. Ever since the series started he has struggled to construct a workable 11-dimensional super-gravity theory. That quest recently led him to focus on particle physics and the search for the Higgs, according to the show's co-creator, Nick Falacci.
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| Photo courtesy of CBS |
Scientists working on DZero love the idea and have created an office for the make-believe physicist.
For the time being, the extent of Fleinhardt's involvement with DZero is unclear, and the show's creators have not decided if he will actually visit Fermilab.
But Darien Wood, cospokesperson for the DZero experiment, says even limited involvement would be a plus.
“The characters on the show speak with great excitement and reverence about the search for the Higgs boson at DZero, and I think it captures some of the passion that we real particle physicists have for our work,” he says. “Maybe young people who watch the show will even think about pursuing physics as a career.”
Haley Bridger and Tona Kunz
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