Collision

About

STORIES FROM THE SCIENCE OF CERN

A decade after the discovery of the Higgs Boson, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN still leads the world in the search to uncover what the universe is made of, how it was formed, and what fate may lie in store for it. If there is such a thing as a ‘cutting edge’, it surely lies 100 metres below the Swiss-French border, at the point where the beams collide.
   As part of a unique collaboration, this book pairs a team of award-winning authors with CERN physicists to explore some of the discoveries being made, through fiction. From interstellar travel using quantum tunnelling, to first contact with antimatter aliens, to a team of scientists finding themselves being systematically erased from history, these stories (and their accompanying afterwords) explore the dark matters that only physics can offer answers to. Authors include Sherlock and Dr Who writer Steven Moffat, novelist and Small Axe screenwriter Courttia Newland, Dame Margaret Drabble and SF legends Ian Watson (whose credits include the screenplay for the Spielberg's A.I.) and Stephen Baxter (winner of the Philip K Dick and John W Campbell Memorial Award).

Featuring CERN physicist and engineers: Professor Lyn Evans, Professor John Ellis, Dr Andrea Bersani, Dr Tessa Charles, Professor Gino Isidor, Professor Jens Vigen, Dr Michael Davis, Dr Carole Weydert, Dr Joe Haley, Dr Kristin Lohwasser, Dr Pete Dong, Dr Daniel Cervenkov, Dr Andrea Giammanco.

Press

Watch Adam Marek and Prof Rob Appleby talk about the project on BBC's The Click.

Listen to Steven Moffat and Lucy Caldwell talk about the project with Samira Ahmed on BBC Radio 4's Front Row.

Listen to Steven Moffat and Prof Peter Dong talk to Ian McMillan about ‘Going Dark’, reverse causality, the measurement problem and consciousness on Radio 3's The Verb.

'Collision review: How CERN's stellar secrets became sci-fi gold' - The New Scientist:

Featured in The Guardian's best science fiction round-up.

Featured in The New Scientist's best science fiction round-up of 2023:

‘A thoughtful and relatively successful experiment in bringing together science and art – a pairing which usually fails to do justice to the science or the art.’ - E&T magazine. 

‘A highly readable anthology built on the idea of teaming up great writers with great scientists... there’s something for everyone – from exploring the nature of symmetry through the mirror of human interaction, to imagined historical encounters and, inevitably, the apocalyptic: we humans have always ventured into the unknown with trepidation.’ - The CERN Courier.

‘[This is] delightful—an imaginative narrative performance, encored with a reflection grounded in reality.’ - Issues in Science in Technology