Public, and political outreach. SELLING P5’S RECOMMENDATIONS TO POLICY MAKERS AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC. (SEE FOR A ONLINE NARRATED VERSION)

Invitation.  Consider the competition for big science money in Washington D.C.  NASA  The 800 lb gorilla of public science in the USA.  Human Space flight, exploration future colonization Mars, Asteroids etc.  Exploration by astronomy and by robots. Discovering life, finding a second Earth, working out how to get there.  Everything they do can be said to be about future practical betterment of mankind. At least that’s how it’s sold. (In prime time on Fox in a couple months.)  Particle physics: Gee wiz we know the spin of yet another particle  Practical physics =/= particle physics … that is how it is perceived.  This is the challenge of getting any particle physics funded. Joe taxpayer has to be able to envision his children or perhaps grandchildren benefiting.

Action steps.  Educate the general public through mass media, i.e. Advertising.  Remember the advertisements which used to tell people how much “space technology” has changed their lives?  Ever heard an ad by a big chemical company like say BASF?  US Particle physics as a community or the DOE need to harness mass media, and especially social media to inform the masses of what we do.  Educate policy makers on the medium term practical benefits of our programs to the nation.  National defense implications if any– the oldest reason govt’s. cared about physics. Weapons, and more likely C 4 I  By products of particle physics activity which have impacted the general public already.  Sell the fundamental product of particle physics.

The fundamental product.  Basic knowledge which leads to the above practical results.  Start from the result and show non- scientist how particle physics made it possible.  Assure the public that whatever machine we ask for will have similar effects we can only guess at. Make particle physics an exploration not unlike space-exploration.