The particle physics community is taking a walk down the red carpet, and invites everyone to join in.
On May 15, 2009, Sony Pictures Entertainment will release Angels & Demons, a major motion picture based on Dan Brown's best-selling novel. Starring Tom Hanks and directed by Ron Howard, the film focuses on an apparent plot to destroy the Vatican using antimatter made at the Large Hadron Collider and stolen from the European particle physics laboratory CERN.
Through a series of public lectures, scientists are using this opportunity to tell the world about the real science of antimatter, the Large Hadron Collider and the excitement of particle physics research. Across the Canada and the United States, scientists from more than 30 colleges, universities and national laboratories will host public lectures as part of the "Angels & Demons Lecture Nights: The Science Revealed" event. More information about the series, including a list of lectures and local contacts, is available at http://www.uslhc.us/Angels_Demons.
Worldwide, scientists working on experiments at the Large Hadron Collider will host lectures and other Angels & Demons-related events for press and the public. Lectures are planned at particle physics institutions across Europe, Asia, Central and South America. For more information on the LHC, visit CERN's Web site at http://www.cern.ch.
Canadian lectures are being scheduled in seven cities across the country: Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Sudbury, Toronto, and Ottawa. See http://www.uslhc.us/Angels_Demons for details and local listings.
TRIUMF, ATLAS Canada, and local university partners in research will be organizing a Vancouver lecture for Friday evening, May 22, at 7:00pm, at the UBC Robson Square Centre.
--By T.I. Meyer, based on a TRIUMF press release