Back-Story Project for Forty-Three Orders of Magnitude

This proposal requests funding for the 8.226 class to produce a brochure, or program, to accompany an exhibit of photographs of particle physics experiments at the MIT Museum. The black and white photographs, from the book Time Machines by Stanley Greenberg, depict experiments across five continents. Each student’s article will describe the “back-story” behind a selected photograph. The assignment requires the students to interview at least one physicist working on the experiment in the photograph in order to find the story. The six best articles will be chosen for the brochure for MIT Museum visitors. The opportunity for publication will motivate high quality writing. The brochures will provide an example for funding requests to foundations for future 8.226 projects.