Rap music seminar at 4 p.m. today, all welcome

Funky49, a rapper from Tampa, Florida, has writen a rap about Fermilab. He will perform it today at 4 p.m. in One West.

Fermilab might get a little funky this afternoon. As part of an Office of Communication seminar on the use of rap music in science communication, rapper Funky49, a science rapper from Tampa, Florida, will perform his newly written Fermilab rap in One West at 4 p.m.

Millions of viewers have learned the basics of CERN's Large Hadron Collider on YouTube from a rap video produced by science writer Katie McAlpine, aka Alpine Kat. Now it's Fermilab's turn.

"I've heard the Fermilab rap and it sounds like something that you'd hear on the radio," said Ben Kilminster, who found Funky49 and asked him to commission a Fermilab rap.

Funky49 will also give a presentation on using rap for science outreach. The rapper produced an album, Rapbassador, to promote Tampa's Museum of Science and Industry. Lyrics to the Fermilab rap are available on the Rapbassador Web site.

"I contacted him and asked if he'd be interested, and he said that he would consider it his patriotic duty," Kilminster said.

Funky49 will spend the week at Fermilab filming a video for his rap. He will also join The Drug Sniffing Dogs, a Fermilab band, for a performance at 7 p.m. at the Users' Center on Friday, August 14.

On TARGET: D'Angelo Cox and Adil Tobaa

TARGET program interns Adil Tobaa and D'Angelo Cox work on creating computer programs.

Editor's note: This is the third Q&A in a series on TARGET program students. Tonisha Taylor, a TARGET student working in the Office of Communication, conducted the interviews. A program overview article and an article on the program's influence will appear in upcoming issues of Fermilab Today.View the first and second Q&A here.

This fall, D'Angelo Cox will be a freshman at the Illinois Institute of Technology and Adil Tobaa will be a junior at the Islamic Foundation School. During the summer, they were Fermilab summer students, who took part in TARGET, a program that aims to expose teenagers from predominantly underrepresented minority groups to physics and engineering.

Q. What is your job at Fermilab?

D'Angelo Cox: We help create and read different computer programs. There is a binder full of instructions that help create the programs.

Q. What are the programs for?

Adil Tobaa: I am working on a program to display a proton while D'Angelo works on one to display an antiproton. We will combine the programs to simulate two particles colliding.

Q. What do you like best about Fermilab?

DC: I like being around so many professionals. I never really met scientists before, but it is great work with them.

Q. What do you hope to get out of this experience?

AT: Knowledge. I want to be exposed to all of these different fields of physics and engineering to help me decide which field I want to go into.

Q. What is your favorite science subject?

Both: Physics

Q. If you could make one scientific discovery, what would it be?

DC: I would like to find an efficient alternative-energy source or possibly harness solar energy so that we no longer have to use possibly harmful chemicals for fuel.

AT: A cure for a major disease or I would like to find a way to convert salt water into fresh water.

Q. What do you think of when you hear the word Fermilab?

AT: I think of the diversity at the laboratory. People from all different backgrounds coming together here to try to answer the big question: How did we get here?