grodscorp@grods.comFiles mostly not carried
 | Posted by Scott on Thursday 11 September 2008, 7:43 am Categories: Literature, Science Tags: Tags: AngelsAndDemons, AntiMatter, CERN, DanBrown, LargeHadronCollider |
Very occasional GrodsContributor, Bookmanoldstyle, was last night considering the end of the world and wondering whether it was worth washing her hair*, when she remembered that the Large Hadron Collider featured in Dan Brown’s novel Angels & Demons. So a-Googling she went and up pops a whole page on the CERN website devoted to a FAQ about the book. These are her favourite bits and they should be yours too.
Q: Does it consist of red brick buildings with white-frocked scientists running around carrying files?
No, that is rather far from reality; we have mostly white buildings made of concrete and the scientists wear everyday clothes and they mostly do not carry files.Q: Can we make antimatter bombs?
No. It would take billions of years to produce enough antimatter for a bomb having the same destructiveness as ‘typical’ hydrogen bombs, of which there exist more than ten thousand already.Sociological note: scientists realized that the atom bomb was a real possibility many years before one was actually built and exploded, and then the public was totally surprised and amazed. On the other hand, the public somehow anticipates the antimatter bomb, but we have known for a long time that it cannot be realized in practice.
That sure puts my mind at rest.
* This last bit is probably not true. It’s probably made up by The Editor.
