This is a big week for Angry Birds maker Rovio, with a Star Wars partnership and new Bad Piggies Egg Recipes cookery app. Now there’s a third announcement: Angry Birds Playground.
It’s kicking off with a partnership with CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Y’know, the people with the Large Hadron Collider.
Angry Birds Playground is actually a new business for Rovio: “a learning programme for 3 to 8 year-olds” based on the Finnish National Curriculum. CERN is its first partner.
“Modern physics has been around for 100 years, but it’s still a mystery to many people. Working together with Rovio, we can teach kids quantum physics by making it fun and easy to understand,” says CERN’s head of education Rolf Landua.
“With Playground products, kids can have fun and learn more about physics than they would’ve in the ‘old-fashioned’ style of learning,” adds Rovio’s CMO Peter Vesterbacka.
Details of specific products springing from the CERN collaboration aren’t available at this point, but the pair teamed up for a simulation of CERN’s particle accelerator using Rovio’s Angry Birds at the Frankfurt Book Fair (pictured) to show the potential.


Rovio teams with CERN for Angry Birds Playground launch http://t.co/YsZgjhW6 via @stuartdredge
RT @TheAppside: Rovio teams with CERN for Angry Birds Playground launch: http://t.co/PoQa4vB0 cc @CERN @RovioHQ @pvesterbacka tip @techmeme
Quantum physics is cool!Rovio teams with CERN for Angry Birds Playground launch: http://t.co/V7Njd1Qk @CERN @RovioHQ @pvesterbacka @techmeme
RT @timgreen64: They must call it the Pig’s Boson… RT @TheAppside: Rovio teams with CERN on Angry Birds http://t.co/rCUgvrMM @RovioHQ @stuartdredge
Physics for kids is now fun! Rovio teams with CERN for Angry Birds Playground launch http://t.co/TeoQScF2 via @stuartdredge
CERN + Rovio. Wowsers http://t.co/cOPW7HSb
What a week #Rovio \o/ First StarWars and now @Angrybirds goes @CERN
http://t.co/AwjH9LRz What is next step? #SkyIsNotLimit
Making quantum physics fun for kids! Rovio teams with CERN for Angry Birds Playground launch http://t.co/YbupIyxU
When I grow up I wanna be an angry quantum physicist. http://t.co/HIAQbSb9
El CERN y los Angry Birds se unen http://t.co/BTDPHE2c via @zite
ROVIO teams up with CERN for Angry Birds playground launch. Natuurkunde voor 3 tot 8 jarigen http://t.co/DIzRTtwX
The people at Rovio really do know how to run a business! #obvious http://t.co/tlAsxQ4t
Angry Birds Playground partners with CERN to teach kids quantum physics by making it fun and easy to understand http://t.co/BhFu4XPo
This is pretty cool. Angry birds developers Rovio launch program to teach kids Quantum Physics http://t.co/xcL54yCr
This might be my favorite partnership announcement this year: http://t.co/9Iz7ZgPj Rovio + CERN: (Angry Particles?)