'Particle Fever'
(DVD / NR / (2013) 2015 / PBS)
Overview: Imagine being able to watch as Edison turned on the first light bulb, or as Franklin received his first jolt of electricity. For the first time, a film gives audiences a front row seat to a significant and inspiring scientific breakthrough as it happens.
DVD Verdict: "Particle Fever" (a 2013 release that has a run time of 99 minutes) brings the story, spread over 5 years (2007-2012) of how the CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research, based in Geneva) is trying to decipher some of the biggest unresolved mysteries in physics, namely one particular particle, and how the composition of that particle may (or may not) explain some things about the universe (or is that multiverse?).
As the Large Hadron Collider is about to be launched for the first time, physicists are on the cusp of the greatest scientific discovery of all time -- or perhaps their greatest failure. Ergo, "Particle Fever" follows six brilliant scientists during the launch of the aforementioned Large Hadron Collider, marking the start-up of the biggest and most expensive experiment in the history of the planet!
The documentary is primarily a series of interview of all six scientists, most of whom are at CERN and sure, it does sound deceptively boring, but trust me when I say that "Particle Fever" (which is a GREAT title for this particular PBS documentary) actually turns out to showcase the fact that these people have a whole lot of interesting things to share with the world. Bottom line is that I very much enjoyed this documentary and I hope you also give it the time that it deserves. This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.78:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs and comes with the Special Feature of:
Q&A with Cast and Filmmakers at Google
Deleted Scenes
www.PBS.org