Big Bang Machine

The title of filmmaker Gaby Hornsby's PBS-aired NOVA documentary refers to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva, a giant particle accelerator that happens to be the biggest machine ever built. Approximately 3,000 scientists and engineers worked together on the 25-year, $10 billion effort to create conditions that would duplicate the first few microseconds after the universe began, while also trying to confirm the existence of the Higgs boson, an essential particle in the evolution of early matter. Credit is given to a number of physicists who came up with the scientific underpinnings, but the U.K.'s Peter Higgs had the good luck (and short name) to have the beastie named after him. CERN's triumphant 2012 announcement of the discovery of the Higgs boson arrives midway through this film, with the remainder largely devoted to trying to convey the mind-stretching concepts tied to the Higgs boson, including "super-symmetry" and "sparticles." Near the end, news arrives that the LHC is due to be fired up again in 2015 for more explorations. Scientists/authors interviewed here include Michio Kaku and S. James Gates Jr. An engaging look at cutting-edge developments in particle physics and cosmology, this is recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (C. Cassady)