Particle Fever
Particle Fever | |
---|---|
Directed by | Mark Levinson |
Produced by |
|
Starring |
|
Narrated by | David Kaplan |
Cinematography | Claudia Raschke-Robinson |
Edited by | Walter Murch |
Music by | Robert Miller |
Production company | Anthos Media |
Distributed by |
|
Release dates |
|
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 (LHC) near Geneva, Switzerland. The film follows the experimental physicists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (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
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
The film premiered at
Release
Particle Fever was shown at several
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
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 96% based on 48 reviews, with an average rating of 7.92 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."[13] On Metacritic, the film has an 87 out of 100 rating, based on 18 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[12]
Awards
In 2016, it was one of the inaugural winners of the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication.[14]
References
- ^ Dance, Scott (March 19, 2014). "Documentary follows 'Particle Fever' surrounding Higgs boson discovery". The Baltimore Sun. Trif Alatzas. Retrieved October 11, 2016.
- Internet Movie Database. Retrieved October 11, 2016.
- ^ Perlman, David (March 9, 2014). "'Particle Fever' an intimate look at a weighty experiment". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved October 11, 2016.
- ^ NAS-Webcast. "2015 Communication Awards Ceremony". Livestream.com. Retrieved October 11, 2016.
- ^ a b Murch, Walter (June 6, 2013). "Catching 'Particle Fever': Walter Murch on Editing the Universe Down to Size" (Interview). Interviewed by Whitney Mallett. Motherboard - Vice. Retrieved October 11, 2016.
- ^ a b Woit, Peter (October 1, 2013). "Particle Fever". Not Even Wrong. Retrieved October 11, 2016.
- ^ Scott, A. O. (March 4, 2014). "'Particle Fever' Tells of Search for the Higgs Boson". The New York Times. Retrieved October 13, 2016.
- ^ a b "Particle Fever Press Notes" (PDF). ParticleFever.com. Retrieved October 11, 2016.
- ^ Kaplan, David (February 19, 2014). "Physicist-turned-filmmaker captures seven years of "Particle Fever"". PBS NewsHour (Interview). Interviewed by Rebecca Jacobson. Retrieved October 13, 2016.
- ^ Cone, Juston (March 16, 2014). "Particle Fever". Motionographer.com. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
- Sheffield Doc/Fest. Retrieved October 13, 2016.
- ^ CBS Interactive. Retrieved October 11, 2016.
- ^ "Particle Fever (2014)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved April 16, 2018.
- ^ Davis, Nicola (June 16, 2016). "Winners of inaugural Stephen Hawking medal announced". The Guardian. Retrieved December 7, 2017.