Jul 26 2005

Gareth Morgan, Western Mail

A scientist based in Wales has told how her work on physics conundrums helped inspire the Da Vinci Code series.

Top-selling author Dan Brown thanked Dr Caroline H Thompson in the acknowledgements section of his hit book Angels and Demons.

The book has become a huge success in the wake of the most famous novel in the series, the Da Vinci Code, which has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. Both novels feature brilliant Harvard symbolist Robert Langdon as the hero.

Dr Thompson, 62, who has done much of her research at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, is modest about her direct influence over the plots hatched in Brown's brain.

But she believes that her online conversations with the American author - whom she has never met in person - from her home in Synod Inn, New Quay, helped spark his imagination when it came to scientific intrigue.

Dr Thompson admits that she is a controversial and outspoken member of the quantum physics community - and her descriptions of misinterpreted theories are similar to the ideas explored by Brown.

'I wanted to talk about how if you challenge accepted theory in physics then it is very hard to get it known about and published,' she said.

Angels and Demons tells of the discovery of means to produce and harness powerful anti-matter particles, giving scientists the ability to play God. The effect this has on church and scientific communities leads to murderous repercussions.

But Dr Thompson still does not know why Brown chose her to pursue his interest in specific areas of quantum physics, although she does remember that he first contacted her in May 1999.

'We had some very pleasant discussions,' she said.

'His first question concerned an experiment that I knew about and was able to help him with.'

But she thinks the main impact was her insider view of the world of leading physics experts and the arguments that could brew.

'I expect I helped fill in his general picture of the intrigues and politics that go on in the supposedly 'cold' field of physics.'

Brown told Dr Thompson he would include her in the acknowledgements of the book he was just finishing, Angels and Demons, and would also use some of her material for promotional talks.

He did just that, and six years later Dan Brown's books are in every suitcase marked essential holiday reading - although Dr Thompson has not yet finished reading his novels herself.

'I've just recently read the beginning of one of his books, and am saving the next for when I'm stuck in hospital or similar,' she said.

But Dr Thompson's new aim is to write her own book - or at least to inspire a thriller based directly on her main area of interest in quantum physics.

She has been campaigning to revise the interpretation of 'quantum entanglement', the theory of how particles might influence one another's behaviour even though they are not connected.

Dr Thompson is convinced that the theory is 'totally wrong' and 'guaranteed to numb the mind' but it is still taught to students as if it were true. She admits the theory is a difficult one to unravel.

'In any event, it manages to convince the unfortunate students, that haven't a chance in hell of understanding the subject, that they'd better just knuckle under, learn the minimum for exams by rote, and trust the experts,' she said.

She added, 'It would be quite a challenge, but I think a thriller of sorts could be built around my story.

'Dan might be just the person to take this on.'

She says a short essay called Sherlock Holmes Investigates the EPR Paradox by Colin Jack has already touched on this, and 'it might even have been me who was the inspiration for the little story at the end about a mad woman physicist'.

So who is Dr Caroline Thompson?

Dr Caroline Thompson's name is known because she is on a crusade to revise scientific opinion about quantum entanglement.

She says too many people accept scientific opinion and think that those who oppose it are 'mere cranks'.

Quantum entanglement was a theory developed in the 1920s and refers to the way two or more quantum particles can be intimately linked, so that one immediately influences the other.

But it has never been proved and this is often hidden behind a mass of maths and equations, incomprehensible even to physics students.

'Too many people believe that it is true and simply accept it,' said Dr Thompson.

'Students may well know of the loopholes, but it's another matter to stand up against the authority of the professors.'

She pledges to continue challenging the 'facts' of physics.

'We think we know the law of gravity, we think we know roughly how much the planets weigh, we think we know what the sun is made of, how it produces its energy, but do we? Do we yet know anything?'