Black Holes and Big Bangs: Review

This is part two of a random series of documentary reviews.

Black Holes and Big Bangs
Originally Published by: VBS

CERN is a particle accelerator located under the country of Geneva. Here little pieces of matter are accelerated at extremely quick speeds. The purpose of the accelerator is to find the origin of matter. The accelerator has been called a big bang machine because it creates an environment similar to that was found at the beginning of the universe. CERN is an important landmark in the development of new physics because it allows the collision of particles at such high speeds. When protons collide at very high velocities there is the possibility that quantum black holes will be created. The chances that the black hole will grow to be massive is slim, but yet there is always a danger.

This documentary focuses on the scientific challenges and landmarks the CERN particle accelerator brings to the world. The negative aspects are not focused on early into the show, but only the exciting new things CERN can deliver. The documentary does go onto to dispel any myths about the CERN particle accelerator. As said earlier, the chances of a black hole creation is slim, but there still is a chance. Black holes are created when a protons collide at high velocities, but gravity will collapse them immediately, so they will only be in existance for a very limited amount of time. Even if a black hole for some reason grew, it would take a long period of time to grow exponentially. It would take at least 50 years to grow. Now, it is not the best thing to lose humanity to a black hole so the question arrives later on, what is too much?

A professor from a German university is brought in to give a counter-argument. He states that the chances of an bad reaction is only 1/6 but playing with the existance of humanity should not happen. What is the best thing for mankind, to venture into the depths of all knowledge, or to be conservative and play the safe game. That is a tough question that in the near future will be answered.

The documentary is beautiful crafted, with profesional cuts and editting. There are wonderful diagrams and visuals to give an understanding to physics beginners. However, I would say that one would have to have some prior knowledge of scientific concepts in order to get a full experience from this documentary. There are so complex terms that are not explained as well as they could have which is a downside that makes the documentary not as effective as it could be. Another thing that is lacking from this show is the emotional connection. The layout is at some point ineffective, it gets boring quickly. One has to pay close attention as there is no building feeling.

Overall, this is a good informative documentary for one looking for the information. For the average watcher this will have little holding effect who may not understand the possible consequences of this scientific experiment. This documentary could be very effective if it was arranged in a different manner, perhaps giving better description for some of the scientific concepts and displaying information in a more emotional manner. Although for science nerds like me, this is interesting, to the general public this will spark little interest.