Angels and Demons, the film of the book of Dan Brown´s sequel to the Da Vinci code, will soon be at a cinema near all of us. And CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, is playing a starring role.
Angels and Demons is a detective story about a secret society that wants to destroy the Vatican using an antimatter bomb. The anti-matter for this bomb is stolen from CERN. This has lead to a unprecented demand for information about CERN and its research, such that CERN has set up a website dedicated to answering explaining the science (and the science-fiction) behind the story.
It´s a very entertaining site – have a look! http://angelsanddemons.cern.ch/
There are photos of Tom Hanks and other Hollywood stars enjoying a tour of the site, trying to understand how a particle acclerator works.
On the main CERN site, there is also a great section which answers the FAQs the public have asked following the book.
http://public.web.cern.ch/Public/en/Spotlight/SpotlightAandD-en.html
Here are couple of parts that I would like to share with you.
Q: Can we make antimatter bombs?
No. It would take billions of years to produce enough antimatter for a bomb having the same destructiveness as ‘typical’ hydrogen bombs, of which there exist more than ten thousand already.
Sociological note: scientists realized that the atom bomb was a real possibility many years before one was actually built and exploded, and then the public was totally surprised and amazed. On the other hand, the public somehow anticipates the antimatter bomb, but we have known for a long time that it cannot be realized in practice.
Q: Why has antimatter received no media attention?
It has received a lot of media attention, but usually in the scientific press. Also, antimatter is not ‘new’. Antiparticles have been known and studied for 75 years. What is new is the possibility to produce anti-hydrogen atoms, but this is also mainly a matter of scientific interest.
Q:Do you make antimatter as described in the book?
No. The production and storage of antimatter at CERN is not at all as described in the book: you cannot stand next to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and see it come out, especially since the LHC accelerator is not yet in operation.
Q:Does CERN own an X-33 spaceplane?
Unfortunately not.
Interesting. I havent seen the film, but read the book. Did they analyse the ”final battle scene”, with the helicopter? It’s hard to believe that anyone can survive such a flight…
Interesting. I havent seen the film, but read the book. Did they analyse the ”final battle scene”, with the helicopter? It’s hard to believe that anyone can survive such a flight…