Chapter 20 Chapter Nineteen

Wittler's laboratory is typically futuristic. The snow-white room was undecorated, and the walls were lined with computers and special electronic equipment. It looked like an operating room.Langdon wondered what secrets a place like this could hide when someone would go out of their way to get in. Once inside, Kohler glanced around the room restlessly, as if searching for clues left by the intruder.However, the lab was empty.Victoria's steps are heavy... her father is gone, and the laboratory has become strange. Langdon immediately noticed that in the center of the room stood a row of clean steel columns, each about three feet high, a dozen or so, arranged in a circle in the center of the room, like a miniature prehistoric Stonehenge, and this made him wonder. It reminds me of the jewelry display stand in the museum, but what is placed on it is not rare stones, but clear and bright bottles and jars the size of tennis cans, but the inside is empty.

Kohler looked at these storage devices, puzzled.He put all these aside for the time being, turned around and asked, "Has the laboratory been stolen?" "Stolen? How is it possible?" Victoria disagreed, "Only my father and I can pass the retinal scanning system." "Then see for yourself." She sighed and scanned the room.After a moment, she shrugged and said, "Everything is the same as it was when my father was there. Messy but orderly." Langdon knew that Khloe was now weighing how far to push Victoria... how much to let her know.Obviously, he decided to keep silent for the time being.He moved the wheelchair to the center of the room and began to carefully observe the empty and mysterious storage.

"It's time to be honest." Kohler finally spoke. Victoria nodded silently.The memory flooded over like a flood that opened the gates, and tears almost overflowed her eyes. Give her some more time, Langdon begged. Victoria slowly closed her eyes and took a deep breath, as if brewing the secret she was about to reveal.Then, she took another deep breath, once, again... Langdon looked at her with concern.Is she okay?He glanced at Kohler, who sat with the nonchalance he seemed used to.Ten seconds passed, and Victoria opened her eyes. Langdon couldn't believe it. In the blink of an eye, Victoria Witterer seemed to be a different person, a completely different person.Now, her plump lips are slightly parted, her shoulders are hanging loosely, and her bright eyes are shining with tenderness, as if she is nodding her head slightly.

It was clear that she had tried her best to face reality.The anger of resentment and the depression in his heart have been extinguished by a deeper calm at this moment. "Where do I start..." she asked quietly. "Start at the beginning," Kohler replied, "tell me about your father's experiment." "My father's lifelong dream was to correct the fallacies of science with holy religion," Victoria said, "He wanted to prove that religion and science are closely related on the road to find the truth, and they lead to the same goal by different routes." She paused, as if Can't believe I'm finally going to reveal this secret. "And recently...he finally figured out a way."

Kohler was silent. "He devised an experiment that he hoped would resolve the greatest divide between science and religion in history." Langdon wondered which disagreement she was referring to.There are countless such differences. "That is," said Victoria, "about the origin of the universe." Oh, it dawned on Langdon.it is this. "The Bible says that God created the universe," she continued, "and God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light. So according to the Bible, everything that is visible in the world originated from a vast void. Unfortunately, the laws of fundamental physics declare precisely that matter cannot originate from the void."

Langdon had heard of this paradox before. The "Bible" says that God "created all things out of nothing", which is completely contrary to the laws recognized by modern physics.Therefore, scientists agree that the Genesis theory is pure nonsense. "Mr. Langdon," Victoria turned, "I guess you know about the Big Bang theory?" Langdon shrugged. "More or less." As far as he knows, the Big Bang is the creation theory accepted by the scientific community today.Although he didn't understand it very well, according to the big bang theory, a high-density energy point broke out in a big bang, and the energy spread outward, thus forming a vast and endless universe.That's about it.

Victoria continued: "As early as 1927, the Roman Catholic Church first put forward the Big Bang theory of creation, which-" "Sorry," Langdon couldn't help interrupting her, "you think the Big Bang theory is a Catholic idea?" Victoria hadn't expected him to ask the question. "Of course, it was proposed in 1927 by a Catholic priest named Georges Lemaitre." "But, I remember..." He hesitated, "Isn't the Big Bang theory first proposed by the Harvard astronomer Edwin Hubble?" Kohler glared at him, and said angrily, "It's the self-righteousness of the American scientific community again. Hubble published this view in 1929, two full years after Lemaitre."

Langdon frowned.Mr. Director, there has only been the Hubble Astronomical Telescope, but I have never heard of the LeMaitre Astronomical Telescope! "Mr. Kohler is right," Victoria said, "that the theory belongs to Lemaitre. Hubble just proved it. He put together a lot of strong evidence, thus proving the science of the Big Bang." "Oh." Langdon wondered if the Hubble fans in Harvard's astronomy department had mentioned Lemaitre's name in their spit-filled lectures. "When Lemaitre first came up with the Big Bang theory," continued Victoria, "scientists thought it was so absurd that it was not worth mentioning. Science has long since proved that matter cannot originate from a void. So when Hubble used science to prove When the possibility of creation was discovered, the whole world was shocked. And the church also pursued the victory, declaring that the big bang theory proved that the description in the Bible was invulnerable and a divine truth."

Langdon nodded, all ears. "Of course, scientists would never be happy to see their discoveries being used by the church to expand religious power, so they immediately revised the Big Bang theory, removed all religious factors, and completely included it under the banner of science. Unfortunately, Unfortunately, to this day, their equation still suffers from a fatal flaw that the Church loves to point out." "It's the singularity," Kohler murmured, uttering the word like it was his bane. "Yes, the singularity." Victoria said. "The initial moment of the creation of the universe, time zero." She looked at Langdon and said, "Even today, science still cannot grasp the initial moment of creation. In explaining the formation of the universe In the early days, our equations worked very well, but if you go back and forth, at zero point, everything suddenly loses its meaning, and all the mathematics collapses, and it doesn't make any sense."

"Exactly," Kohler said impatiently. "The church has seized on this point and decided that this is evidence of the creation of the world by the hand of God. Tell me your point of view." Victoria said blankly: "I will say that my father has always believed that the power of God caused the big bang. Although science can't explain the sacred moment of creation now, he firmly believes that science will one day prove the existence of God. She walked sadly to her father's workbench, pointing to the laser-printed memo pinned to it. "Whenever I doubted it, my father would hold his credo in front of me."

Langdon saw it read: Science and religion are not mutually exclusive. Science is only too young to recognize religion as its friend. "Father wants to push science to a higher stage of development." Victoria said: "At that stage, science will prove the existence of God." She brushed her long hair, heavy and sad. "So, he started to work on a project that any scientist had never thought of, and absolutely had no ability or technology to try." She stopped suddenly, not knowing how to proceed. "He devised an experiment to prove that Genesis was possible." Proof of Genesis?Light, Langdon wondered.Create matter from nothing? Kohler stared blankly across the room. "Can you repeat that, please?" "My father created... the universe out of absolute nothing." Kohler turned around sharply. "what!" "In other words, he made a big bang." Khloe appeared to be jumping. Langdon was in a fog.Create the universe?Recreate the Big Bang? "On a much smaller scale, of course," Victoria said more quickly, "the procedure is fairly simple. First, in the accelerator tube, two clusters of particle beams facing each other are accelerated. The speeds collided head-on, and the two merged into one, so that all their energies were collected on a point the size of a pinhole. In this way, an extremely high-density energy was obtained." She kept talking non-stop, and the director's eyes also Then stare bigger and bigger. Langdon struggled to keep up with her train of thought.So Leonardo Wittler simulated the energy compression point of the hypothetical origin of the universe. "This result," Victoria said, "is absolutely breathtaking. If it is made public, the foundations of modern physics will be shaken." She spoke slowly, as if savoring the explosive news. "At the point of energy compression inside the accelerator tube, particles of matter emerge from nothing." Kohler stared and said nothing. "Matter," Victoria repeated, "matter derived from nothing. A jaw-dropping pyrotechnic display of the subatomic level, the birth of a microcosm. Father's experiments proved not only that matter could arise from nothing, but also that Explosions and genesis are possible if we accept that there is a powerful energy source behind them." "You mean God?" Kohler asked. "God, Buddha, Superpowers, Yahweh, Singularity, Oneness—call it what you want—but it's the same thing. Science and religion testify to the same truth—pure energy made the universe." When Kohler finally spoke, he said darkly, "Victoria, you're confusing me. You mean your father created...matter out of nothing?" "Yes," Victoria walked to the storage, "these are the evidence. The storage contains samples of things my father made." Kohler moved to the storage unit, coughing continuously, circling around what he thought was a problem like a vigilant animal. "I must have missed something," he said. "How do you prove that the particles of matter contained in the reservoir were indeed created by your father? They could have come from anywhere in the world." "In fact," said Victoria, looking confident, "these particles could never have been found anywhere else. These particles are extraordinary, a substance that does not exist anywhere on the earth. . . so they could only have been created." from." Kohler's face was clouded. "Victoria, what other substance are you referring to? There is one and only one substance in the world, and it—" He stopped suddenly. Victoria has won the day. "I remember that you have given several rounds of lectures on this yourself, Director. You have said that there are two kinds of matter in the universe. This is an irrefutable scientific fact." She turned to Langdon and said, "Mr. Langdon, please tell me How does the Bible describe Genesis? What did God create?" Langdon felt awkward, wondering what this had to do with it. "Well, God created... light and darkness, heaven and hell—" "Very well!" said Victoria, "that is to say he created two poles of things, perfectly symmetrical poles that balance each other." She looked at Kohler and continued, "Director, you can see that science and religion coincide. The Big Bang did indeed create symmetrical things in the universe." "Yes, including matter," Kohler whispered, as if talking to himself. Victoria nodded. "Therefore, it is not difficult to imagine that my father's experiment also produced two substances." Langdon wondered to himself, puzzled.Did Leonardo Witterer create the negative pole of matter? Kohler grimaced. "The antimatter you just mentioned can only exist in other places in the universe, and it can never appear on the earth, and it can even be said that it cannot appear in the Milky Way." "That's right," Victoria said unhurriedly. "This just proves that the particles in these storage containers must have been created by my father." Kohler's face was extremely ugly. "Victoria, don't tell me these jars contain real samples." "I was about to say," Victoria raised her head and looked at the memory storage device proudly, "Director, what you have in front of you is the world's first batch of unique antimatter samples."

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