Tag Archives: charm

Experience the Heartfelt Charm of The Musical Adaptation of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

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Science news, long reads, and expert journalism covering technology, health, and the environment - New Scientist

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is showing in London until July 18th

Tyler Fayose

William Kamkwamba’s inspiring journey has captured hearts globally, highlighted in his TED Talk, memoir The Boy Who Used the Wind, and the film adaptation. Now, you can experience his story in the captivating musical at @sohoplace in London until July 18th.

In 2001, a devastating famine struck Wimbe, Malawi. At just 13 years old, William (portrayed by Alistair Nwachukwu) embarks on an incredible quest for knowledge as he drops out of school due to financial constraints. With a keen engineering mind, he learns electronics by scavenging books and builds windmills using recycled materials, determined to provide power to his village.

The Boy Who Used the Wind captivates with its story. Excitement arises not from whether William will succeed, but from the obstacles his family faces. His talented sister Annie (Tsemaye Bob-Egbe) grapples with family expectations, while his best friend Gilbert (Idris Kargbo), the chief’s son, rises in times of crisis.

The heart-wrenching conflict lies in William’s father Trywell’s struggle. He desires a quality education for his son, yet requires William’s assistance on the farm to survive, creating a tragic cycle. Mazibuko expertly navigates this emotional tension in his performance.

Though not every musical strikes the right chord, The Boy Who Used the Wind delivers powerful performances. The vocal talents of the cast shine, particularly Mazibuko, Bob-Egbe, and Cholwe Raina Mntanga as the wind’s embodiment. While some songs have a haunting quality, the choreography stands out, especially in key dramatic moments like One Less (Hyena), complemented by stunning animal puppetry that evokes deep emotions.

Overall, the first half of The Boy Who Used the Wind felt drawn out, focusing excessively on the village’s charm. However, as the situation escalates for Wimbe, the emotional impact is undeniable. The performance resonated deeply, leaving the audience in tears during poignant moments for William.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

CERN Physicists Unveil Third Baryon Family Member Featuring Dual Charm Quarks

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Physicists from the LHCb collaboration at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have successfully detected the elusive Ωcc⁺ baryon. This particle, which contains two charm quarks and one strange quark, completes the long-sought family of doubly-charmed baryons, first predicted over half a century ago.

Artist’s impression of the Ωcc⁺ baryon, showcasing its dual charm. Image credit: Daniel Dominguez / CERN.

“Quarks are the fundamental building blocks of matter,” stated Dr. Paula Collins, deputy spokesperson for the LHCb collaboration.

“There are six types of quarks: up, down, charm, strange, top, and bottom. These combine into pairs or triplets, recognized as mesons and baryons, respectively.”

“Sixty years ago, as experiments began revealing the quark structure of matter, researchers started developing theoretical models to classify how quarks form into composite particles.”

“Scientists were soon able to predict the properties of particles that had yet to be discovered.”

“The discovery of a new particle at Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1964 marked a significant turning point.”

“This particle, comprised of three strange quarks, was previously predicted by theorists, and its experimental validation confirmed the robustness of these theoretical models.”

“In 1974, another groundbreaking discovery was made with the identification of the fourth quark, the charm quark,” researchers noted.

“This prompted theorists to expand the model to include numerous potential quark combinations.”

“These predictions encompassed baryons with dual charm properties.”

“Such particles consist of two charm quarks along with a third up, down, or strange quark.”

“Physicists are particularly intrigued by this group of particles because the significant mass differences among quarks can shed light on the strong forces binding quarks into composite structures.”

“Unfortunately, prior experiments lacked the capability to generate baryons with dual charm due to insufficiently sensitive instruments.”

Illustration of the production and detection of the dual charm Ωcc⁺ baryons in the LHCb experiment. Image credit: CERN.

The LHCb physicists discovered the first of these doubly-charmed baryons in 2017 and the second earlier this year.

The detection of Ωcc⁺ marks the third and final member of this particle family, with data analyzed from high-energy proton-proton collisions at the LHC in 2024.

These collisions produced new doubly-charmed baryons, which are short-lived, traveling only a few millimeters through the detector before decaying into more stable particles.

The LHCb team tracked the traces these particles left on the detector back to their origin.

This revealed the distinctive signature of a new short-lived particle with a mass approximately four times that of a proton.

“This is a beautiful and historically significant moment,” Dr. Collins remarked.

“Among the 85 composite particles discovered so far at the LHC, these three doubly-charmed baryons stand out.”

“They decay under weak forces and have sufficiently long lifetimes to produce measurable flight distances in our experiments.”

“This groundbreaking discovery was made possible due to the upgraded LHCb detectors, which have advanced capabilities for tracking and identifying particles.”

Source: www.sci.news

Review of Thank Goodness You’re Here!: A blend of pure vibrancy and dark charm

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IIt’s a classic British comedy setup: an unknown young salesman from a major company is sent on a seemingly mundane trip to an eccentric town, and chaos ensues. This excellent game from small studio Coal Supper makes it clear from the start that it intends to stuff this setting with as much slapstick and surrealism as possible. Leaving the opening sequence set in a 10-storey office, the player is forced to climb out of a window, his fall prevented by the bus he must board for the rest of the journey.

When you arrive in the fictional northern English town of Barnsworth, a sort of gloomy reincarnation of early 1980s Barnsley, you’re supposed to meet the Mayor, but he’s busy, so you go out into the city. Here you encounter a bevy of odd characters, drawn in eerily bright colors and a deceptively childlike style. They usually greet you with a “nice to see you” and gather you together to deal with an absurd crisis. This might be a fat gentleman with his arm stuck in a drain, a fries shop owner whose fryer has broken, or an aging admiral who asks you to gather up some seagulls. But wherever you go, through the market, across the rooftops, down the lanes, you’ll encounter eccentrics doing odd jobs. The strange logic and spiraling…

A seemingly childish style…Thank you for having you here! Photo: Cole Sapper

As for comedic influences, the creators name-drop Reeves and Mortimer and The Mighty Boosh, but the interplay of slapstick, surrealism, and pop art also brings to mind Monty Python, Yellow Submarine, and the slightly subversive 1980s comics Whoopi and Wither and Chips. But don’t worry, you don’t need to know any of that to enjoy the game’s sheer exuberance and dark charm.

What might help is a little knowledge of northern working-class stereotypes: the number of shops with rhyming names (Doug’s Rugs, Nick’s Bricks and, my favorite, Raj’s Chargers, a mobile phone market stall), the unhealthy food offerings (fast food trucks selling Porky Nobbers, carts selling “Oily Bops”) and the almost psychotic competition between pie bakers.

An almost psychotic rivalry between pie makers…I’m so glad you’re here! Photo: Coal Supper/Panic Inc

But overlook these and plenty of other jokes emerge as you find keys and hammers, get a shy boy to beg for milk, or just enjoy the contributions of Matt Berry’s voice actor, who brings these eccentrics to life alongside the rest of the talented cast. In between the main quests, which build on top of each other like dominoes like the puzzles in Codemasters’ old Dizzy games, there are downright bizarre sequences that have you exploring the surface of a steak or collecting bubbles on a spirit level.

There’s also some light satire towards the games industry: graffiti on a wall depicts a man urinating on the word “Ludnarrative,” and in a filthy sewer area between the two locations is a sign that reads “Liminal spaces may not be as appealing as they seem.” Indeed, the game as a whole, with its relentless string of fetching tasks, could be interpreted as pasting the tedious conventions of open-world side quests.

The game’s three-hour runtime is packed with so many ideas, visual gags, wordplay, plants and rewards that you’ll need to play a few more times to take it all in. It’s great fun to play such a completely uncompromisingly silly game, but like a lot of the most ridiculous British humor, there’s also a quiet undertone of angst and despair in this one. The pie seller, the town drunk, the milk-scared child – they’re all trapped in their own quiet personal hells that just happen to be funny to the rest of us.

In the future, when the topic of the funniest comedy games of all time comes up, the usual names will likely pop up: Monkey Island, The Stanley Parable, Death Stranding (just kidding), etc. But now a new game will join them: Coal Supper has created perhaps the 21st century’s first fantastic abstract cartoon puzzle game set in Yorkshire. Thank goodness.

Source: www.theguardian.com