a film by Samy Brunett (in French or English versions), Blue in Green Productions. DVD or VHS PAL €20.00. (Available directly from samy.brunett@village.uunet.be.)
Bringing the fundamental physics research of today, or of the last 30-40 years, within the reach of the general public is a very difficult task. It is verging on the impossible, to be perfectly honest, as it requires some prior general scientific knowledge on the part of the public and a great command of the subject on the part of the author(s). Having said that, the difficulty of the task does not imply that it should not be attempted, in fact quite the reverse. And this is what Samy Brunett does in his DVD on the theory of everything.
The approach chosen for Brunett’s DVD is to use interviews and discussions with a number of young and not-so-young physicists who are working for or at CERN, some of whom are well known and some of whom are not (in any case, the general public is unlikely to tell the difference). These physicists are fairly representative of their profession, which is already a point in the DVD’s favour, as they all speak with enthusiasm and passion.
The interviews are preceded by a number of computer-generated images, not all of which are entirely appropriate to the subject matter, which is, quite simply, the origins of the universe – a different kettle of fish altogether to the famous magic potion of Asterix the Gaul! However, having said this, once the introduction is over we do go on to meet the actual people working in physics. Those of us who will recognize it may lament the rather drab setting of the CERN cafeteria, but the sentiments are well expressed and quite convincing, whether they are uttered by young physicists or by the leading lights of the field.
Of course from a single viewing of this DVD alone, the “man in the street” is not going to aspire to understand what “we” mean today by the theory of everything, extra dimensions, the very early universe or particle mass, especially since the links between the different subjects are not always clear. However, its great merit – and certainly not the only one – is that it has been made and that it allows the viewer to get an idea of today’s leading figures in fundamental research.
In the current wave of commemorative events (the recent centenaries of the discovery of radioactivity and of Einstein’s first articles, for example, or CERN’s 50th anniversary this year), this kind of modern technology-based publication can do nothing but good for the rather stale image of this discipline of ours that is so difficult to popularize.
