PHYSICISTWHO
helpeddiscover
theHiggsboson— theso-called“God
particle.”A formerdrummer for the
GratefulDead.Ethnographersand
anthropologistswho fannedoutacrossAmericaat the
turnof thecentury, likeIndianaJones insearchofa
differentsortofgrail.
While thismayread likeablurb foranewDavid
Mitchellnovel, theseoddlydisparatecharactersare
partofareal-lifehigh-techstorywitharesoundingly
happyending: thatof theresurrectionofanAmerican
treasure troveofhistorical
recordings that,untilnow, sat
mutely in librariesandmuse-
umsnationwide.
Thecentralcharacter is
CarlHaber,aphysicistatthe
LawrenceBerkeleyNational
Laboratory inBerkeley,California.Mostfamously,
HaberwaspartofateamofscientistsattheCERN
LargeHadronCollider inSwitzerlandwho, in2012,dis-
coveredthe infinitesimallysmallHiggsbosonbysmash-
ingsubatomicparticlesatnearlythespeedof light.
Haber’sworkwouldbe incomprehensible to
sound-recordingpioneers likeThomasEdison
andAlexanderGrahamBell,whoexperimented
withmaterials like tin foil,waxcylindersandglass
platescoveredwithphotographicemulsionpaper.
Althoughcrude, the technology inspiredawaveof
TECH
ByKenWysocky
ILLUSTRATIONS
PABLOBISOGLIO
KENWYSOCKY
’s
work has appeared via
manyoutlets, including
BBC.com and the
ChicagoTribune
. The
Milwaukee-based
writer enjoys delving
intohis 13,000-song
iTunes library.
Withhelp fromhiscomputer-generated
programcalledIRENE,physicistCarlHaber
hasdiscoveredaway toresurrecta
pricelesscacheofAmerica’sauralhistory
byrevivingunplayablerecordings
A
AMERICANWAY
APRIL2016
81
ASonicBoon
