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Independent Lens: The Atom Smashers | DVD

Starring: n/a
Directed By: n/a

List Price:

~~$24.99~~

Price:

$19.99

You Save:

$5.00 (20%)

Available:

Usually ships in 24 hours

Binding:

DVD

Rating:

Run Time:

80 minutes

Format:

Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC

Studio:

PBS (DIRECT)

Number of Discs:

Aspect Ratio:

1.33:1

Release Date:

January 06, 2009

Sales Rank:

48,465th

EDITORIAL REVIEWS

Product Description
Physicists at Fermilab, the world's most powerful particle accelerator laboratory, are closing in on one of the universe's best-kept secrets: why everything has mass. With the Tevatron, a four-mile underground particle accelerator, the scientists smash matter together at nearly the speed of light to find a particle theorized forty years ago by Scottish scientist Peter Higgs. Scour the subatomic world for the Higgs. Will the discovery happen?

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 2.0 based on 1 review)

Interviewee quote: "We have to make science sexier." by Jeffery Mingo (Homewood, IL USA)

2 Stars
September 20, 2009
I approached this DVD as a person who hates science courses and wonders if a science documentary could be interesting. I didn't want flashbacks of the obnoxious, revolting man who taught my junior high chemistry class or anything. I really think this work was trying to keep an audience that consisted of more than just physics dorks. The work begins with physicists playing in a band and taking tango lessons. The work shows clips from 1950s cartoons which add a campy dynamic. Throughout the work there are clips of a 1970s "Donahue" episode and it becomes clear how rare it would be to have a scientist speaking to an everyday audience. However, some of the info presented here is very technical. This work makes you read text and those who like to be spoon-fed won't enjoy that. Do you remember that the film "Boys to the Side" starts off as a comedy but quickly turns into a discussion about a very serious subject? Actually, many "Simpsons" episodes start off on one topic but actually end with a totally separate one. Well, this work is very appropriate in a time of downsizing. These scientists lose their federal funding. They struggle with "How could I lose my job and how could my financial backers not see how essential I am?!" Many people panic when their skills become obsolete. This has a political edge too. One interviewee said, "Pretty soon we're gonna have two research arenas: Republican science and Democrat science." I understand his fear. However, I was thinking, "I sure would love Uncle Sam to focus on ending breast cancer or AIDS, rather than paying these physicists to sit around being theoretical!" Probably after this documentary was filmed, it was learned that a newly unemployed anthrax researcher may have killed those postal workers in 2001 or so. Sadly, when the government pulls funds, it can drive people crazy, but this work doesn't go there. The work has a contest aspect. Will these Americans solve this scientific question or will the Swiss? In the 1980s, "And the Band Played On" suggested that American and French scientists raced to see who could locate the HIV virus. If I remember correctly, the Norwegians and the British competed to see who could reach the South Pole first. Once in my high school physics class, an engineer visited and said, "Well, only 3% of engineers are minorities and only 5% are women." This work starts off by only showing white guys. Twenty minutes in, they show a white woman and a Latina. The white woman speaks about her dating life and you see the Latina speaking Spanish to her young son. So this documentary hands the mic to white men, a white woman, and a Latina, but the few men of color are rendered mute here. The women express that balancing work and family can be hard. Is it hard to maintain an ethnic culture when one is in the lab so often? Did physics help these men to move to the US? How does being a physicist and man of color affect their dating and marital chances? None of that comes up and I'm not pleased about it. The lab in question is outside of Chicago. As a Chicagoan, it was great seeing O'Hare Airport in this documentary and seeing places that were familiar, rather than just being Any Town, USA. The scientists were on a quest for some Higgs factor. It would seem like this would be the focus of the work, but it isn't. "Looking for Langston" was barely about Langston Hughes, either. Still, the minimizing of this quest may frustrate science-loving viewers.

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