Particle Fever

Particle Fever

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Mark Levinson
Produced by
Starring
Narrated by David Kaplan
Music by Robert Miller
Cinematography Claudia Raschke-Robinson
Edited by Walter Murch
Production
company
Anthos Media
Distributed by
  • Abramorama
  • BOND360
Release dates
  • July 14, 2013 (2013-07-14) (Sheffield, UK)
  • March 5, 2014 (2014-03-05) (United States)
Running time
 99 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $1.4 million[1]
Box office $869,838[2]

Particle Fever is a 2013 American documentary film tracking the first round of experiments at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland. The film follows the experimental physicists at CERN who run the experiments, as well as the theoretical physicists who attempt to provide a conceptual framework for the LHC's results. The film begins in 2008 with the first firing of the LHC and concludes in 2012 with the successful identification of the Higgs boson.[3]

The Communication Awards of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine awarded a $20,000 prize for excellence in communicating science to the general public in Film/Radio/TV to David Kaplan and Mark Levinson for "Particle Fever" on October 14, 2015. The awards are given to individuals in four categories: books, film/radio/TV, magazine/newspaper and online, and are supported by the W. M. Keck Foundation..[4]

Synopsis

The film is composed of two narrative threads. One follows the large team of experimental physicists at CERN as they try to get the LHC running properly. After a promising initial test run, the LHC suffers a liquid helium leak in 2007 that damages its electromagnets. Fabiola Gianotti, Martin Aleksa, and Monica Dunford are all shown discussing how to handle the negative publicity surrounding the accident, and how to proceed. After repairs in 2009, the LHC begins to run experiments again at half power.

The other thread follows the competing theories of Nima Arkani-Hamed and his mentor Savas Dimopoulos. In the film, Arkani-Hamed advocates for the "multiverse" theory, which predicts the mass of the Higgs boson to be approximately 140 giga-electronvolts. Dimopoulos argues for the more-established supersymmetry theory, which predicts the mass of the Higgs boson to be approximately 115 GeV.

The narrative threads combine at the end of the film, when CERN announces the confirmed existence of a Higgs-like particle, with a mass of approximately 125 GeV. The discovery of the particle is met with a standing ovation, and Peter Higgs is shown wiping away tears. However, neither of the competing theories of the universe is definitively supported by the finding.

Later, Kaplan is shown admitting that none of his theoretical models are supported by this finding, and that the long-term implications of the discovery are unclear.[5][6][7]

Production

The film was shot over a period of seven years. It was directed by Mark Levinson, a former theoretical physicist with a doctorate from UC-Berkeley. Levinson produced the film along with David Kaplan, a professor of physics at Johns Hopkins University and producers Andrea Miller, Carla Solomon and Wendy Sax.[8] The team gathered nearly 500 hours of footage from both professional camera crews and amateur video self-recordings shot by the physicists themselves.[9] This footage was then edited by Walter Murch, who had previously won Academy Awards for his work on Apocalypse Now and The English Patient.[5]

The film premiered at Sheffield Doc/Fest on July 14, 2013.[10]

Release

Particle Fever was shown at several festivals before opening in limited release in the United States on March 5, 2014.[8]

Critical response

The film received critical acclaim, with reviewers praising the film for making theoretical arguments seem comprehensible, for making scientific experiments seem thrilling, for making particle physicists seem human, and for promoting physics outreach. Several reviewers singled out Murch's editing for praise.[11] On his blog, theoretical physicist and string theory critic Peter Woit called the film "fantastically good", but cautioned that Arkani-Hamed's linking of the Higgs boson to multiverse theory was a tenuous proposition, as this theory did not currently make testable predictions.[6]

Review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes reports the film as holding an overall 96% positive approval rating based on 45 reviews, and a rating average of 7.9 out of 10. The site's consensus states: "The concepts behind its heady subject matter may fly over the heads of most viewers, but Particle Fever presents it in such a way that even the least science-inclined viewers will find themselves enraptured."[12] On Metacritic, the film has an 87 out of 100 rating, based on 18 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[11]

References

  1. ↑ Dance, Scott (19 March 2014). "Documentary follows 'Particle Fever' surrounding Higgs boson discovery". The Baltimore Sun. Trif Alatzas. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
  2. ↑ "Particle Fever (2014)". Box Office Mojo. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
  3. ↑ Perlman, David (9 March 2014). "'Particle Fever' an intimate look at a weighty experiment". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
  4. ↑ NAS-Webcast. "2015 Communication Awards Ceremony". Livestream.com. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
  5. 1 2 Murch, Walter (6 June 2013). "Catching 'Particle Fever': Walter Murch on Editing the Universe Down to Size" (Interview). Interview with Whitney Mallett. Motherboard - Vice. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
  6. 1 2 Woit, Peter (1 October 2013). "Particle Fever". Not Even Wrong. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
  7. ↑ Scott, A. O. (4 March 2014). "'Particle Fever' Tells of Search for the Higgs Boson". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
  8. 1 2 "Particle Fever Press Notes" (PDF). ParticleFever.com. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
  9. ↑ Kaplan, David (February 19, 2014). "Physicist-turned-filmmaker captures seven years of "Particle Fever"". PBS NewsHour (Interview). Interview with Rebecca Jacobson. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
  10. ↑ "Particle Fever". Sheffield Doc/Fest. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
  11. 1 2 "Particle Fever – Critic Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
  12. ↑ "Particle Fever (2014)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved 11 October 2016.

External links

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