California Film Institute San Rafael, CA
Dr. Michael Barnett
Senior Physicist and Educator, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Head of the Particle Data Group
andWalter Murch
Academy Award-Winning Sound Editor and Mixer
Particle Fever— The Science of Particle Fever
Program Description
Dr. Barnett and sound editor and mixer Walter Murch led a post-screening Q&A on the film.
Presented At
California Film Institute San Rafael, CA
Film Synopsis
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.
Particle Fever follows six brilliant scientists during the launch of the Large Hadron Collider, marking the start of the biggest and most expensive experiment in the history of the planet, pushing the edge of human innovation. As they seek to unravel the mysteries of the universe, 10,000 scientists from over 100 countries joined forces in pursuit of a single goal: to recreate conditions that existed just moments after the Big Bang and find the Higgs boson, potentially explaining the origin of all matter. But our heroes confront an even bigger challenge: have we reached our limit in understanding why we exist?
About the Speaker
Senior physicist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and educator Dr. Michael Barnett is head of the Particle Data Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Walter Murch has been editing sound in Hollywood since starting on Francis Ford Coppola's film The Rain People (1969). He edited sound on American Graffiti (1973) and The Godfather: Part II (1974), received his first Academy Award nomination for The Conversation (1974), won his first Oscar for Apocalypse Now (1979), and won an unprecedented double Oscar for Best Sound and Best Film Editing for his work on The English Patient (1996). For his work on the film Apocalypse Now, Murch coined the term "sound designer," and along with colleagues such as Ben Burtt, helped to elevate the art and impact of film sound to a new level. He was the sound editor and mixer for Particle Fever.