Dan Vergano of USA Today–one of our top still-institutionalized science writers–has a fun piece today about scientific reaction to Ron Howard’s Angels & Demons, the film version of the novel by literary titan Dan Brown, in which an antimatter bomb stolen from Europe’s CERN threatens destroy the Vatican. It’s science fiction of course, but what’s interesting is how “realistic” the filmmakers tried to make their very unreal plot–down to the use of a CERN scientist as an adviser and the careful design of a “magnetic thermos bottle” to contain the antimatter bomb:
“Audiences are getting smarter by the minute, so I think it’s just playing fair,” Howard says. “I would like someone to see this and say, yes, it’s science fiction, but it’s smart science fiction.”
I am then quoted in the article providing the counterpoint to this perspective….
