Look What They've Done to My Song, Ma: Astonishing News from Haverford, Pennsylvania

[beamjockey]

Last night I received stupefying news.

Professor Walter F. Smith of Haverford College has long curated an online collection of songs about physics. Because someone should, right?

Not only are they fun, he writes, but "In just one or two minutes, a song can dramatically transform the classroom atmosphere, creating a learning environment in which even students who are unsure of themselves are willing to speak up and ask questions. They engage additional areas of the students' brains; when a song is performed in class, students' retention of material for the entire class session is improved."

For several years, Prof. Smith has also conducted sing-alongs at the annual conference of the American Physical Society, the March Meeting. Because someone should, right?

As you may know, over the years, I have penned lyrics to a filksong or two about physics.

Prof. Smith e-mailed me last night to say that my song "Fusion Girl" had been sung at the March Meeting. Furthermore, this year he was fronting a band. Furthermore, a video has been created.

Click to view

That's right. My 1989 song was sung at, as the Youtube notes remind us, THE LARGEST ANNUAL GATHERING OF PHYSICISTS IN THE WORLD.
(Emphasis mine.)

I just about plotzed.

I am grateful to the good Professor and his colleagues for keeping this elderly song alive. And tickled pink about it.

Below, what I wrote in 1989.

For forty years physicists have been trying to get controlled nuclear fusion. They've been taking poor little nuclei of heavy hydrogen-- we call 'em "deuterons"-- and crashing them together with brute force. Just a little while ago the news came out of Utah that you could do fusion in a pickle jar, without a lot of expensive equipment. If this turns out to be true, it could be as important to energy production as good old Enrico Fermi's first reactor in the University of Chicago squash courts, way back when.

Fusion Girl
by Bill Higgins
Copyright 1989 by William S. Higgins

I was working in the Fusion Lab late one night
Da deuteron, ron, ron, da deuteron ron
But I couldn't get my magnetic bottle to light
Da deuteron, ron, ron, da deuteron ron
Yeah, it was late at night
Yeah, it wouldn't light
Yeah, she was a Fusion Girl
Da deuteron, ron, ron, da deuteron ron

Then I met a chemist who was kinda pretty
Da deuteron, ron, ron, da deuteron ron
She told me that she came from Salt Lake City
Da deuteron, ron, ron, da deuteron ron
Yeah, she was kinda pretty
Yeah, she came from Salt Lake City
Yeah, she was a Fusion Girl
Da deuteron, ron, ron, da deuteron ron

She said, "You're wasting your time, and you're bound to lose"
Da deuteron, ron, ron, da deuteron ron
"Let me introduce you to a new way to fuse"
Da deuteron, ron, ron, da deuteron ron
Yeah, you're bound to lose
Yeah, a new way to fuse
Yeah, she was a Fusion Girl
Da deuteron, ron, ron, da deuteron ron

What Fermi did under a stadium
Da deuteron, ron, ron, da deuteron ron
She did with heavy water and palladium
Da deuteron, ron, ron, da deuteron ron
Yeah, he had a stadium
Yeah, she had palladium
Yeah, she was a Fusion Girl
Da deuteron, ron, ron, da deuteron ron

We made it together and it was so sweet
Da deuteron, ron, ron, da deuteron ron
Just a few neutrons and a whole lotta heat
Da deuteron, ron, ron, da deuteron ron
Yeah, it was so sweet
Yeah, a lotta heat
Yeah, she was a Fusion Girl
Da deuteron, ron, ron, da deuteron ron