I have to confess to being slightly concerned when the eminent particle physicist took to the stage wearing a short sleeve T-shirt pulled over his long sleeved collared white shirt. Not a great look and not aided by image of the cover of his book ‘Antimatter’ emblazoned on the t-shirt. I think perhaps that Frank thought this form of advertising more likely to encourage the audience to buy the book (rather than less).
This judgement call was echoed in the constant references to Dan Brown’s ‘Angels & Demons’. Presumably this was another marketing ploy – along the lines of the fact behind the fiction of ‘Angels & Demons’. I have no interest in Dan Brown and having fallen for it once will never read another of his books. Frank Close is a real expert, the explanations were fascinating and I left wanting more of the physics and less of the marketing.
It is a little sad comment about our society when the only way a scientist can get anyone’s attention is when he hypes fiction rather than science. Personally, I find science to be more fascinating than fiction. If anything the movie does do a service by educating people of the reality of antimatter. The frountier offered by exploration of this material could lead to breakthroughs stranger than current sci-fi. The Dominium model is gaining traction in this front: see http://hypography.com/forums/alternative-theories/18910-the-dominium-model-by-hasanuddin.html