On May 13, Angels &Demons went. The Bernini Mystery premieres. The film covers many scientific themes, from the fundamental building blocks of the universe to a secret society of scientists known as the Illuminati. But where does the science end and the fantasy of the filmmakers begin?
Opposite us are two people who are now among the apples of the Vatican's eye. One is professor of religious symbolism Robert Langdon, the man who cracked the Da Vinci code and now solved the Bernini mystery. Next to him is the physicist Vittoria Vetra. The Italian harvested three containers of antimatter when the Large Hadron Collider, the giant particle accelerator in Geneva, was first activated. Together they prevented a plot to blow up the Vatican with one of the containers of antimatter.
In Angels &Demons. The Bernini Mystery their actions were captured on film. But as zealous science journalists, we still question some of the events in the film. Hence this exclusive interview with Professor Langdon and Dr Vetra, in which we separate fact from fiction.
First of all, thank you for your time. We understand that life must be a lot busier now that you are both the heroes of the Vatican. But let's start at the beginning. In the first ten minutes of Angels &Demons, you, Vittoria Vetra, harvest three containers of a quarter gram of antimatter each. Is that really possible?
In theory yes, yes. But as you know, the difference between theory and practice in science is immense.
First the good news. The LHC can indeed make antimatter. We use strong magnets to separate the antiprotons that are formed during the collisions in the LHC. Then we slow down the antiprotons to very low velocities and combine them with antielectrons that sodium-22 naturally releases. The result is ionized antihydrogen that you store in a vacuum. As long as you use magnetic fields to ensure that the antihydrogen atoms do not come into contact with the container, you can theoretically store the antimatter indefinitely.
The downside of this process is the price. In 1995, CERN made history when they made nine antihydrogen atoms. The Fermilab quickly followed with a hundred atoms of antihydrogen. But production has not risen sharply in recent years. In 2008, we made between one billionth and ten billionth grams of antimatter. At current production rates, it takes about half a billion years to produce a quarter gram of antimatter. This will cost $100 trillion (million billion) dollars. So don't count on anything for the time being.
A quarter gram of antimatter in the film explodes with a force of five kilotons of dynamite. If I understand you correctly, the Vatican does not have to be afraid of such an attack for the time being?
Not with antimatter, no. But the number in the movie is about right. You know how much destruction an atomic bomb causes? Such a bomb uses only one percent of all available energy in the uranium. An antimatter bomb converts all matter into energy. That's one hundred percent. It only takes a little bit of antimatter for a big bang.
So we really should be concerned?
Well no. At CERN, we once calculated that all our antimatter contains just enough energy to burn a 50 Watt light bulb for a few minutes.
Antimatter can therefore serve as an energy source?
You can even propel rockets with it. Four milligrams of antiprotons should be enough to get a rocket to Mars in a few weeks. A colleague at NASA, Harold Gerrish, believes that antimatter is the rocket fuel of the future. The current particle accelerators are not designed as antimatter factories but as research instruments. If you industrialize the production process, the price of antimatter can drop to as little as five thousand dollars per microgram, according to Gerrish. Four milligrams of protons will cost twenty million dollars. Not such a high price if we will be on Mars within a few weeks.
Dr. Vetra, thank you for this interview.
Robert Langdon, you are a professor of religious symbolism at Harvard University. You've been studying the Illuminati for much of your academic life. What is the Illuminati?
The Illuminati is a name for an ancient society. On May 1, 1776, a young law professor from Ingolstadt, Bavaria, founded the Order of the Perfect Bars. Later this Adam Weishaupt renamed the order the 'Order of the Illuminati'. "Illuminati" comes from Latin. It means "enlightened persons" or "enlightened." The Illuminati strived for the improvement and perfection of man and thus of the world through enlightenment. In addition to this esoteric-ritual goal, the Illuminati also pursued political goals based on the Enlightenment philosophy. Thus the order attempted to reject the Roman Catholic and politically conservative Kingdom of Bavaria and replace it with a liberal republic. At its peak, the order had about 2,500 members from Bavaria and various European countries. By 1790, however, the "Order of the Illuminati" was no longer active. On March 12, 1901, Leopold Engel and Theodor Reuss revived the Order of the Illuminati. During World War II, the Nazis persecuted members of the order, but many members managed to survive in Switzerland. This new order remained active until 1990.
If I understand correctly, the Illuminati did not exist before 1776?!
You understood that correctly. Founder Weishaupt originally claimed that the Illuminati was much older. According to him, the last Persian king Yadzegerd III, who died in 651 BC, was the first founder of the Illuminati. Even the mythical heroes of Homer's Odyssey, the great Greek philosopher Aristotle (384 - 322 BC) and American President Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826) would have been members of the Illuminati. Later, Weishaupt freely admitted that he had made all this up.
The Illuminati would use symbols like the ambigram and the "all-seeing eye" as the keystone of a pyramid to indicate their existence to initiates. Professor Langdon, you are an expert on symbolism. Your book The art of the Illuminati, Volume I has been sold dozens of times. Are the ambigram and the 'all-seeing eye' as the keystone of a pyramid symbols of the Illuminati?
I can be brief about that:that was made up!
In your brief history lesson to Richter, Commander of the Swiss Guard, you give a treatise on 'la Purga'. In 1668, the church is said to have kidnapped four Illuminati who were engaged in science. The church would have branded each on the chest with the symbol of the cross. Subsequently, the four Illuminati would have been executed. The bodies were said to have been put on display to the public as a warning not to question the Church's rules regarding science. The Illuminati would have withdrawn underground because of this 'purge'. Is this based on any historical reality?
In the film, the Illuminati take revenge on this 'Purga' or 'purification' by wanting to destroy the four pillars of faith. The personification of the four pillars lies in the four preferiti, the favorite cardinals for the papacy. Any of the preferiti is branded on the chest by one of the four elements of science (earth, air, water, and fire) and executed. Unfortunately, there is no historical evidence that 'la Purga' actually took place. As I mentioned before, the Illuminati first emerged in 1776. On this fact alone we can label the event in 1668 as pure fiction.
The Bernini Mystery. In the film, you follow the Path of Enlightenment through clues that the artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini is said to have hidden in his artwork. For a moment you even wonder aloud if the great Bernini was a mysterious member of the Illuminati. Do you really think that possible?
No! First, I firmly believe that before 1776 there was no Illuminati. And as everyone knows, the great Bernini lived from 1598 to 1680. Second, a later founder of the Order of the Illuminati Leopold Angel initially claimed that Bernini was a member of an Illuminati in the Italian Renaissance, but years later that same Angel admitted that he made this up to recruit members.
The Bernini Mystery is therefore a fabrication?
I'm afraid so! But at least it's well made up!
Professor Langdon, thank you for this interview.