Angels & Demons – the science behind the story

A race against the clock to prevent antimatter stolen from CERN from blowing up the Vatican: following a tried and tested Hollywood formula, the ‘ticking-bomb’ thriller, Angles & Demons can hardly fail to entertain. But how does the science stand up to scrutiny?

To coincide with the world-wide release of the film, CERN inaugurated a brand new exhibition in the Globe, titled ‘Angels and Demons – the science behind the story’ on Friday 15 May. "Of course things have been exaggerated, so we have created this exhibition to explain what is fact and what is fiction", explains Rolf Landau, head of the Education Group and former spokesman of the ATHENA antihydrogen experiment.

"In the exhibition we used Angels & Demons to ask questions about the real science of antimatter: What is antimatter? How is it made? And of course: Can we make an antimatter bomb? " Says Landua.

The exhibition, created by the Education Group, will be in the Globe until July, and is open from 10.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. on weekends, and 2.00 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. on weekdays. As well as learning about the science of antimatter, visitors to the exhibition can see a real-life electromagnetic ‘trap’ used to transfer pollen rather than antimatter, but using a very similar principle. There is also a target like the one used in the Antiproton Decelerator to create antiprotons and a variety of other hands-on activities.

The exhibition, is part of a number of activities CERN is coordinating to help people understand the real antimatter research being done here. A new website - http://angelsanddemons.cern.ch - is also online to help those with questions about CERN and antimatter. There was also a competition on local radio for members of the public to visit the ALICE, CMS, and LHCb experiments and listen to a lecture on antimatter.

To watch a video of the exhibition inauguration visit :

https://cds.cern.ch/record/1178304?ln=fr