Movie Review/Science Education
So I watched Angels and Demons last night and my official review is this: SO Good!
It was actually quite beautiful as it takes place in Rome and the characters are whisking themselves to all the gorgeous historical buildings with all of their statues and fountains. Also, I’m sure it was factually accurate so all of the information that Dr. Langdon spouts regarding Catholic and architectural history is an education in itself! Not only that, but they show the Vatican Archives! (I’m sure its real and not a replicated set) Now, the best part of this movie is in the beginning when they show the Large Hadron Collider in all its glory. I had no idea that this movie was going to be such a treat with all of my favorite things, including a great soundtrack. So in the beginning they show all the scientists busy at their LHC computers in a crisis about how and when to “harvest” some stuff which turns out to be antimatter. Antimatter looks pretty cool in the movie – all glowy and powerful – but what is it exactly? I have no idea. So I’m doing a little research…
Turns out CERN (home of the LHC) has an Antimatter Academy. Their site has tons of information about it and I am still trying to understand it and its implications. Antimatter is definitely the way of the future.
Emilily, 
Carmen, and 
Dave are discussing. 
Atom Ant, and 
Ma, 
Dave 11:58 am on December 21, 2009 Permalink
Carmen, how does antimatter relate to strange, degenerate, exotic or dark matter? Speaking of elusive dark matter, indicators of it’s existence have been felt in a mine in Minnesota: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/dec/17/dark-matter-detected
Happy Winter Solstice to you both!
Carmen 2:57 pm on December 21, 2009 Permalink
Good article! Very interesting. I had no idea there was a group called the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search, I’ll have to contact them and see if they’re looking for new members. There is one thing in that article that seems contradictory… They were saying that dark matter has a unique characteristic that allows it to move through matter as if it didn’t exist and yet the only way they can detect it is to wait for dark matter particles to bump into their high powered sensing machines. Maybe what they meant to say is that their machines can sense when dark matter particles are passing through them, not bumping into them. Anyways, if thats true dark matter is probably in here right now!
Also, thanks for the pop quiz Dave! Lucky for me the answer to your question is simple = Theoretically.
Emilily 10:13 pm on December 22, 2009 Permalink
I have not yet seen the movie, but I did read the book, and really enjoyed the parts about the LHC. I am not really crazy about Tom Hanks, I feel he is a little too old and soft-looking to play the dashing Dr. Langdon (who is, I like to think, more of an Indiana Jones type, but maybe that’s just me romanticizing it) especially opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones, but I will probably check it out nonetheless…my superficial view of what the characters are supposed to look like will not get in the way of my love of CERN!
Emilily 10:46 pm on December 22, 2009 Permalink
That was a great article, Dave. That was the first I had heard of supersymmetry being one of the goals of the LHC, or that dark matter might explain why time only travels forward. Fascinating! Although, I did question why a dark matter detector was located at the bottom of a mine in Minnesota? I would have thought they would put them in space, but underground? Where else do they have dark matter detectors? How many are scattered around the world…like, enough that I could run into one someday? What does it looks like? More research is in order….