On May 15, 2009, Sony Pictures will release "Angels and Demons,"
and bring the world's largest particle physics laboratory to the silver screen.
The 53rd and final replacement magnet for CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was lowered into the accelerator's tunnel today, marking the end of repair work above ground following the incident in September last year that brought LHC operations to a halt. Credit: CERN.
Based on Dan Brown's best-selling novel, this major motion picture, starring
Tom Hanks and directed by Ron Howard, focuses on a plot to destroy the Vatican
using a small amount of antimatter. That antimatter is made using the Large
Hadron Collider (LHC) and is stolen from the European particle physics laboratory
CERN. Parts of the movie were filmed at CERN.
Embracing this opportunity to discuss the real science of antimatter, the LHC
and particle physics research, on May 19, 2009, the National
Science Foundation (NSF) will host a live media briefing spotlighting three
world-renowed physicists.
- What: Live Video Teleconference
- When: Tuesday, May 19, 2009, 1 p.m. EDT (12 noon CDT;
7 p.m. CEST)
- Featuring: Rolf-Dieter Heuer, director-general, CERN;
former research director for particle and astroparticle physics, Germany's
DESY Laboratory
Leon Lederman, Pritzker Professor of Science, Illinois Institute of Technology;
resident scholar, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy; director emeritus,
Fermilab; Nobel, Physics (1988); and author, "The God Particle: If the
Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question?"
Boris Kayser, distinguished scientist, Fermilab; chair, American Physical
Society's Division on Particle Physics; former program director, NSF Theoretical
Physics
How: To watch and ask questions during the webcast, visit
the Science360 Web site.
To Participate: (Journalists Only) Send an e-mail to lisajoy@nsf.gov
to obtain the call-in number and passcode. Submit questions anytime to webcast@nsf.gov.
Contact: lisajoy@nsf.gov
This NSF live teleconference briefing is part of a larger effort in which,
worldwide, scientists working on experiments at the LHC will host lectures and
other "Angels & Demons"-related events for members of the press
and the public. More than 45 lectures are taking place across the United States,
Canada and Puerto Rico as part of the series "Angels and Demons: The Science
Revealed". Events are also planned in particle physics institutions across
Europe, Asia, Central and South America. For more information on the LHC, visit
CERN's Web site.
* U.S. participation in the Large Hadron Collider project is supported by the
Department of Energy's Office of Science and the National Science Foundation.
* CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is the world's leading
laboratory for particle physics. It has its headquarters in Geneva. At present,
its Member States are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland,
Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. India,
Israel, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, Turkey,
the European Commission and UNESCO have Observer status.