Live Webcast from CERN - Mission Impossible 3?
It is a beautiful sunny autumn day, 21 November 2000. The place is CERN's Microcosm exhibition where around 50 pupils from the International School in Geneva and the Collège du Leman have gathered to dive into the mystery of antimatter production and take part in CERN's second Live Webcast of the series 'The Antimatter Factory'. The first was broadcast on 18 November.The webcast is played in the mood of Mission Impossible with music and teasers from this famous television and cinema series. The mission here is not to save the planet but to understand how and why antimatter is produced at CERN.
In the Webcast studio, Paola Catapano, Rolf Landua and Mick Storr answer questions posed by students in Italy and Finland thanks to video-conferencing.
Paola Catapano, Visit and Exhibitions group leader, dressed like a Bond girl Rolf Landua, spokesman of the ATHENA experiment and Mick Storr Head of Technical Training lead the show. The place starts buzzing and we peep into the antimatter factory (AD) and are introduced to three scientists who work there. The audience is much enlarged by video-conferencing running parallel to the webcast there is a two way connection with students in Bari, Italy and students gathered in the Observation Tower Nasinneula, 168 meters above ground in Tampere, Finland. Moreover, a large number of people are following live on the Internet and can send their questions by e-mail.
Rolf Landua steps in to the studio to explain the basic principles of hydrogen, antihydrogen, antiprotons and positrons. Masaki Hori, from the ASACUSA experiment, comes to introduce the research on antimatter led by Japanese physicists. Then the three main agents of Mission Impossible 3 enter. Sophie, Jennifer and Laura, all from the International School of Geneva, are selected to go on a mission and bring back a bottle of antiprotons and a bottle of positrons. Should they choose to accept it, they have only 30 minutes to complete their mission. While waiting for them Rolf and the three scientists from the AD answer questions from the audience in Microcosm, the Internet, Bari, and Tampere. Some of them are quite difficult - like how do antimatter and gravitational forces interact - questions physicists are still trying to answer.
We tune in now and then to follow the suspense of the three girls going through the AD, then the ATRAP and ATHENA experiments where they meet physicists who help them on their way. They even had the bottles set and ready for the girls to collect. When they come back and are commended for their exploit, a lost alien comes asking for antimatter to reload the engine of his spaceship so he can get back home. We are gracious enough and give him the two bottles of antiprotons and positrons so he can mix them up into antimatter fuel!
If you would like to see the webcast on CERN archive go to:
