{"id":2248,"date":"2009-03-04T00:25:09","date_gmt":"2009-03-04T06:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/cosmicvariance\/2009\/03\/04\/a-teaching-moment-angels-demons\/"},"modified":"2009-03-04T00:25:09","modified_gmt":"2009-03-04T06:25:09","slug":"a-teaching-moment-angels-demons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/04\/a-teaching-moment-angels-demons\/","title":{"rendered":"A Teaching Moment: Angels & Demons"},"content":{"rendered":"

May 15 will be the premiere of Angels & Demons<\/em><\/a>, the Ron Howard movie starring Tom Hanks and Ayelet Zurer, based on the Dan Brown novel. The narrative moves between particle physics at CERN and religious politics at the Vatican — feel free to provide your own characterization of that particular binary opposition.<\/p>\n

Angels & Demons at CERN<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We have no idea how good the movie is going to be, but it’s sure to garner attention, and it does feature physics prominently. So the Division of Particles and Fields of the American Physical Society figures that we might as well get some mileage out of it. They recently sent around the email below, encouraging physics departments to host “Angels & Demons lecture nights” to capitalize on the interest generated by the movie. Seems like a good idea to me — rather than spending energy finding flaws in the physics as portrayed in the movie (which are sure to be there), let’s grab the opportunity to spread the word about some exciting science that’s being done in the real world. If nothing else, the most common question about the LHC will change from “Will it make a black hole that will destroy the world?” to “Will it make an anti-matter bomb that could destroy the Vatican?”<\/p>\n

This May, Sony Pictures will release Angels and Demons, a movie based
\non Dan Brown’s best-selling novel that focuses on an apparent plot to
\ndestroy the Vatican using a small amount of antimatter. In the book
\nand the movie, that antimatter gets stolen from CERN.<\/p>\n

Starring Tom Hanks and directed by Ron Howard, parts of the movie were
\nactually filmed at CERN. It’s not every day that a major motion
\npicture places particle physics in the spotlight. The US particle
\nphysics community would like to take advantage of this opportunity to
\ntell the world about the science behind the movie, the Large Hadron
\nCollider and the excitement of particle physics.<\/p>\n

Along these lines, the Fermilab, SLAC and US LHC users organizations
\nwill join forces to organize Angels and Demons public lecture nights
\nat universities or other venues across the country when the movie
\npremieres in mid-May. While each institution will be responsible for
\nthe local logistics of planning the public lecture, the Fermilab
\nOffice of Communications and the CERN Press Office can help. A Web
\npage on the US LHC Web site (http:\/\/www.uslhc.us\/Angels_Demons<\/a>) will
\nprovide you with materials that will include:<\/p>\n

– a template PowerPoint talk, for your use if helpful<\/p>\n

– a template poster to advertise the lecture at your institution<\/p>\n

– tips on answering tough questions<\/p>\n

– information on how to broadcast the lecture on the Web<\/p>\n

If you would like to host a lecture, please contact Elizabeth Clements
\n(lizzie@fnal.gov) or Katie Yurkewicz (katie@fnal.gov). They will give
\nyou more information and help you with publicity for your event.<\/p>\n

While the movie contains a great deal that is not about science,
\nphysics is central to its plot. This makes it possible for US
\nphysicists to lecture on the science behind the movie, the Large
\nHadron Collider and particle physics in general. The physics at the
\nheart of Angels and Demons–the potential destruction of the Vatican
\nby a small chunk of antimatter–calls attention to what happens when
\nmatter and antimatter meet. This in turn calls attention to the fact
\nthat the absence of practically any antimatter in the universe is
\ncrucial to our existence. To understand that absence is one of the big
\nchallenges of particle physics. Public lectures could discuss the
\nchallenge of the missing antimatter, possible solutions and how
\nexperiments in both the intensity and energy frontiers will explore
\nthese mysteries.<\/p>\n

In order to allow enough time to plan and advertise the lecture at
\nyour institution, the time to get started is now. We hope that you
\nwill make the most of this wonderful opportunity to get the public
\nexcited about particle physics and the many anticipated discoveries
\nthat lie ahead.<\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/p>\n

Boris Kayser, Chair
\nDivision of Particles and Fields
\nAmerican Physical Society<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May 15 will be the premiere of Angels & Demons, the Ron Howard movie starring Tom Hanks and Ayelet Zurer, based on the Dan Brown novel. The narrative moves between particle physics at CERN and religious politics at the Vatican — feel free to provide your own characterization of that particular binary opposition. We have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-and-the-media"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2248\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}