March 31, 2014

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Particle Fever, I’ve Got It!

By now, I hope you’ve heard about Particle Fever. It premiered a few weeks ago – if I remember correctly, the same week as Neil deGrasse Tyson’s new Cosmos premiered.

By Brian Malow

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

By now, I hope you've heard about Particle Fever. It premiered a few weeks ago - if I remember correctly, the same week as Neil deGrasse Tyson's new Cosmos premiered. What a great week for science in the mass media.

While it hasn't gotten quite as much attention as Cosmos, it deserves to! It's a documentary about particle physics, a feature film, playing now in about 30 cities, and coming soon to more. I already saw it and loved it. This is science filmmaking at its best.

It follows some of the construction of the Large Hadron Collider, leading up to its being turned on. But it's a human story, focusing on six scientists - theorists and experimentalists - and it does an impressive job of capturing the excitement, the passion, and the mystery of science. Offhand, I can't think of a hard science documentary that is more dramatic and moving - and its success is due in no small part to its having been edited by Walter Murch, the Academy Award-winning editor and sound designer whose credits include Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, and The English Patient.

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Check out the trailer - and see if it's playing in your town. (you have to close the video window to see the cities). There are additional clips on the site, ParticleFever.com.

In addition to performing and giving science communication talks for NSF, AAAS, NASA, NIST, ACS and other acronyms, Brian Malow has produced science videos for Time magazine and audio pieces for Neil deGrasse Tyson's StarTalk radio show. He has blogged for Scientific American and worked in science communications at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. He can be found as @sciencecomedianScienceComedian.com.

More by Brian Malow

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