Nerdgasm in "Particle Fever"
Warning: Nerdy martial is contained within this review. Moreover, it's the worst kind of nerdy material, that of a non-scientist. Read at your own discretion.
"Particle Fever" is a documentary about the super particle accelerator and supercollider in Cern, Switzerland that is funded and staffed by over 100 nations. Under the direction of the European Organization of Nuclear Research, it has been a thirty year project that is the center of controversy in the scientific community.
The controversy is not over military application of its findings, whether the collider will create a singularity and kill us all, or who will take credit for the results. No, the controversy is something more sinister: will the Higgs particle reveal evidence for the popular supersymmetry hypothesis of the universe or the dreaded, evil multiverse hypothesis. Jobs can be lost in the flash of a proton, reputations can be ruined depending on the results, the whole universe could be at risk if we find we are part of a multiverse!
Of course I exaggerate, slightly, but "Particle Fever" does a credible job in laying out the consequences of some results over others in the experiment. The main goal of the 17 miles, billion dollar collider is to reveal the Higgs particle (a fundamental particle at the center of our existence), find its weight and energy, in GeV. GeV is 1.60217657 × 10-10 joules: really, really small, the smallest particle we know of, so far. The hope is to also find out if other, smaller particles emerge when two protons collide at near light speed.
You must see the movie to find out if our universe is doomed and if hundreds of theoretical scientists have lost their jobs. Their sometime arch-rivals but collaborators on this experiment, the experimental physicists, will certainly have jobs after this, unless the universe collapses and having a job is moot. The experimenters, as they would boast, actual do things with their hands and have skills. The theorists need them more than they need the theorists, they argue.
The movie doesn't explain things fully; it creates more questions than answers:
1. What is a multiverse, and why would the mass and energy of the Higgs indicate we live in a multiverse? Does it have to do with stability. The nerds don't explain.
2. One theorist postulated that under certain conditions of the Higgs, the universe could disappear. However, doesn't the concept of the conservation of energy and mass preclude a disappearance of matter and thus it would be only a universal transformation of matter? He doesn't explain that for us non-theorists.
3. Two questions about reading the mass and energy of the Higgs: a. If you are creating massive energy when colliding protons to reveal the Higgs, couldn't different energy levels at the collision change the measurement of the Higgs, for mass and energy are two sides of the same particle? I assume they accounted for this in their experiment, but like elite nerds, they didn't explain it to us unenlightened lay folk.
Moreover, isn't the experiment itself creating uncertainty in their reading of the particle? Wouldn't the near-light speed collision of the protons change the very nature of the Higgs particle they are measuring? They didn't explain this to us either. "Particle Fever" makes science interesting. There are true science protagonists in this movie. It focused on a few scientists, and the women scientists get a center and starring role. Their infectious obsession with their fields gave us all, "Particle Fever."
Rating: Pay Full Price
Peace, Tex Shelters
Warning: Nerdy martial is contained within this review. Moreover, it's the worst kind of nerdy material, that of a non-scientist. Read at your own discretion.
"Particle Fever" is a documentary about the super particle accelerator and supercollider in Cern, Switzerland that is funded and staffed by over 100 nations. Under the direction of the European Organization of Nuclear Research, it has been a thirty year project that is the center of controversy in the scientific community.
The controversy is not over military application of its findings, whether the collider will create a singularity and kill us all, or who will take credit for the results. No, the controversy is something more sinister: will the Higgs particle reveal evidence for the popular supersymmetry hypothesis of the universe or the dreaded, evil multiverse hypothesis. Jobs can be lost in the flash of a proton, reputations can be ruined depending on the results, the whole universe could be at risk if we find we are part of a multiverse!
Of course I exaggerate, slightly, but "Particle Fever" does a credible job in laying out the consequences of some results over others in the experiment. The main goal of the 17 miles, billion dollar collider is to reveal the Higgs particle (a fundamental particle at the center of our existence), find its weight and energy, in GeV. GeV is 1.60217657 × 10-10 joules: really, really small, the smallest particle we know of, so far. The hope is to also find out if other, smaller particles emerge when two protons collide at near light speed.
You must see the movie to find out if our universe is doomed and if hundreds of theoretical scientists have lost their jobs. Their sometime arch-rivals but collaborators on this experiment, the experimental physicists, will certainly have jobs after this, unless the universe collapses and having a job is moot. The experimenters, as they would boast, actual do things with their hands and have skills. The theorists need them more than they need the theorists, they argue.
The movie doesn't explain things fully; it creates more questions than answers:
1. What is a multiverse, and why would the mass and energy of the Higgs indicate we live in a multiverse? Does it have to do with stability. The nerds don't explain.
2. One theorist postulated that under certain conditions of the Higgs, the universe could disappear. However, doesn't the concept of the conservation of energy and mass preclude a disappearance of matter and thus it would be only a universal transformation of matter? He doesn't explain that for us non-theorists.
3. Two questions about reading the mass and energy of the Higgs: a. If you are creating massive energy when colliding protons to reveal the Higgs, couldn't different energy levels at the collision change the measurement of the Higgs, for mass and energy are two sides of the same particle? I assume they accounted for this in their experiment, but like elite nerds, they didn't explain it to us unenlightened lay folk.
Moreover, isn't the experiment itself creating uncertainty in their reading of the particle? Wouldn't the near-light speed collision of the protons change the very nature of the Higgs particle they are measuring? They didn't explain this to us either. "Particle Fever" makes science interesting. There are true science protagonists in this movie. It focused on a few scientists, and the women scientists get a center and starring role. Their infectious obsession with their fields gave us all, "Particle Fever."
Rating: Pay Full Price
Peace, Tex Shelters