Particle Fever - A movie about theoretical physics

[skizzerflake]

Sometimes I'm jabbed about enjoying some "slow" movies, but this one moves along at something like 99.99% of the speed of light.

It was an interesting choice in movies tonight. Somewhat indecisive, I noticed a movie called “Particle Fever” at our nearby indie-flick theater. The first movie about theoretical physics I have seen in a few months, it’s a documentary about the Large Hadron Collider. For those unfamiliar, the LHC in Switzerland it the largest (seventeen miles in diameter, mostly underground) and most expensive machine ever built. It’s been under construction for 30 years. It has enough post-doc physicists to populate a mid-sized town.


The Web as we know it was invented in order to allow physicists working on the LHC to communicate around the world. It’s purpose is to accelerate sub-atomic particles to near-light speed and then collide them then with each other in order to find evidence for the Higgs Boson, long a theory only. The Higgs Boson, sometimes referred to as the God Particle apparently unifies subatomic particle theory and provides insight into whether the universe is one of “super-symmetry” or the far less appealing “multiverse”.


Why a movie? As it turns out, it makes a fascinating movie about a quest for knowledge. There’s no practical value to knowing this, but, as fans of science know, everything that is practical now was once an air-headed theory discounted by cynics and scorned by the narrow-minded. The smart phone in your pocket was science fiction hokum 60 years ago. This actually turned out to be quite interesting, mostly understandable, and when I left the building I think I understood why it’s important whether a Higgs Boson has a mass of 115 GEV or 140 GEV. The world REALLY NEEDS science for the masses. A similar project in the good old USA (The Superconducting Supercollider) was deep-sixed back in the 90’s by cave-dwellers who thought we really needed more missiles than knowledge.


Expecting to watch this movie in an empty theater, I was pleasantly surprised. As it turns out, one of the main characters in this movie is a physicist from Johns Hopkins. It appeared that the audience was heavily populated by people from the Hopkins Physics Dept and the Hubble Space Telescope Institute, which are a few blocks up the road. The audience knew something I didn’t and started applauding when the movie started. I ended up sitting through 1 hour and 38 minutes of super conducing magnets, liquid helium, quarks and particle detectors with rapt attention. If you get a chance, this makes an excellent viewing.

See Nick Cave's view of all this -- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Higgs Boson Blues (Official Video) - YouTube

 

[defmoot]

My daughter is graduating from HS this June. When she was young I flexed my interest-in-science muscles by introducing her to physics through various popular books including Feynman's "Six Easy Pieces," "Surely You're Joking...," and eventually "The Character of Physical Law." Also Martin Rees's "Just Six Numbers" and others.

My wife saw a review of PF in today's paper and suggested we see it. I mentioned your recommendation. We're all in if we can get to it before it leaves. So, thanks.

My daughter? First in her class and planning for Chemical Engineering at college this fall.


ETA: She's also a fan of Nick Cave, Grinderman, etc.

 

[rojo]

Sent from my LG-VS980 using Tapatalk

 

[jinjuku]

My daughter? First in her class and planning for Chemical Engineering at college this fall.

That is great to hear that she is well into the STEM fields. It's getting better and better for the better half of the human race in STEM.

 

[defmoot]

That is great to hear that she is well into the STEM fields. It's getting better and better for the better half of the human race in STEM.

Yeah, thanks. She knows that STEM sector careers are difficult to establish, unpredictable, affected by federal H1-B visa policies, etc., but we figure a solid base in math and critical-thinking skills will go a long way if she ends up in another field. I suggested "finance" as a possible backup plan.

 

[jay21112]

For those not a fan of Indie Flicks: Hollywood already put this movie out: The Big Bang (2010) - IMDb

 

[skizzerflake]

Neeerds? These are the absolute, utter, complete, cream of the crop of nerds. They're so nerdy that they look normal, except that they have IQ's around 190 and can write out differential equations and evaluate integrals in their heads faster than most of us can write out a pizza order.

 

[skizzerflake]

For those not a fan of Indie Flicks: Hollywood already put this movie out: The Big Bang (2010) - IMDb

Wasn't exactly THAT sort of bang.

 

[skizzerflake]

My daughter is graduating from HS this June. When she was young I flexed my interest-in-science muscles by introducing her to physics through various popular books including Feynman's "Six Easy Pieces," "Surely You're Joking...," and eventually "The Character of Physical Law." Also Martin Rees's "Just Six Numbers" and others.

My wife saw a review of PF in today's paper and suggested we see it. I mentioned your recommendation. We're all in if we can get to it before it leaves. So, thanks.

My daughter? First in her class and planning for Chemical Engineering at college this fall.


ETA: She's also a fan of Nick Cave, Grinderman, etc.

Wish her luck.

 

[jay21112]

Wasn't exactly THAT sort of bang.

You obviously just read the synopsis.
Watch the movie. Without giving away anything I'll say that it is exactly on this topic, and something that should be watched if you are into this topic.
HOWEVER, that being said, I hated the movie.

 

[Irvrobinson]

Yeah, thanks. She knows that STEM sector careers are difficult to establish, unpredictable, affected by federal H1-B visa policies, etc., but we figure a solid base in math and critical-thinking skills will go a long way if she ends up in another field. I suggested "finance" as a possible backup plan.

My son recently graduated with a few degrees in ChemE. The biggest issue I see lately with STEM career paths is degree requirement inflation. It used to be you could get a great job with a BS, now everybody and their sister has no-thesis masters, sometimes a couple of them, and I see a PhD required on a lot of job postings that look to me like a BS would do just fine. Even education-wise we are becoming a two-class society, the under-educated and the over-educated.

I think your daughter has made a fine choice. Knowing science and math is always a ticket to ride, IMO.

 

[defmoot]

My son recently graduated with a few degrees in ChemE. The biggest issue I see lately with STEM career paths is degree requirement inflation. It used to be you could get a great job with a BS, now everybody and their sister has no-thesis masters, sometimes a couple of them, and I see a PhD required on a lot of job postings that look to me like a BS would do just fine. Even education-wise we are becoming a two-class society, the under-educated and the over-educated.

Agreed. What a mess, and I'll leave it at that.

I think your daughter has made a fine choice. Knowing science and math is always a ticket to ride, IMO.

Thanks for the encouragement.

The thing is, she's very bright, works hard, takes responsibility for herself, etc. — a great kid (and I ain't just sayin' that). But what's a girl gonna do? We've had "the talk" about the mercurial nature of the world these days. She gets it. Most people end up in jobs/careers that have little to do with what their college major. She knows enough to study something useful that helps develop marketable skills.

We have a saying in our house, only half-jokingly:

"Math always wins."

I guess she's ready to test the hypothesis...

.