Physics at Half Past Nine

A physicist, a director of popular-science films, and a sports fan talk about the structure of the atom between periods of a hockey game they watch on TV.

1971-01-01 | ru

CERN, or The Factory for the Absolute

Human action is often influenced by the desire for knowledge. This desire is in itself a positive impulse and could be said to be the basis of all progress. Let's move this statement to the ground of scientific research at CERN, and see if it applies here - and then test the common experience that human stupidity permeates every social stratum and, in the case of the elites, is a potential threat.

2010-10-21 | cs

Ionosphere: Dr. Eliana Nossa

At Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, Eliana Nossa studies the ionosphere. This short films tells the story of Columbian researcher Eliana Nossa as she explains her study of the ever-changing universe, Arecibo's technology and data, and her role as a woman among her male colleagues. She studies the ionospheric irregularities that impact terrestrial communication.

2020-05-01 | en

Solar Weather: Dr. Alessandra Pacini

Alessandra Pacini, solar physicist and mother of two, has dedicated her life to researching our sun and its relation to the rest of our solar system. Traveling across the globe with her family, from Finland to Puerto Rico, Alessandra is on a mission to discover the great mysteries of our solar system.

2022-02-01 | en

Gravitation - Urkraft des Universums

2003-08-04 | de

A Brief History of Time

This shows physicist Stephen Hawking's life as he deals with the ALS that renders him immobile and unable to speak without the use of a computer. Hawking's friends, family, classmates, and peers are interviewed not only about his theories but the man himself.

1991-10-01 | en

Take the World From Another Point of View

In 1973 Yorkshire public television made a short film of the Nobel laureate while he was there. The resulting film, Take the World from Another Point of View, was broadcast in America as part of the PBS Nova series. The documentary features a fascinating interview, but what sets it apart from other films on Feynman is the inclusion of a lively conversation he had with the eminent British astrophysicist Fred Hoyle.

1973-01-01 | en

Cosmic Voyage

The Academy Award® nominee Cosmic Voyage combines live action with state-of-the-art computer-generated imagery to pinpoint where humans fit in our ever-expanding universe. Highlighting this journey is a "cosmic zoom" based on the powers of 10, extending from the Earth to the largest observable structures in the universe, and then back to the subnuclear realm.

1996-08-09 | en

A Trip to Infinity

Does infinity exist? Can we experience the Infinite? In an animated film (created by artists from 10 countries) the world's most cutting-edge scientists and mathematicians go in search of the infinite and its mind-bending implications for the universe. Eminent mathematicians, particle physicists and cosmologists dive into infinity and its mind-bending implications for the universe.

2022-09-26 | en

Free Will? A Documentary

Free Will? A Documentary is an in-depth investigation featuring world renowned philosophers and scientists into the most profound philosophical debate of all time: Do we have free will?

2023-01-31 | en

Cern and the Sense of Beauty

An exploration of the link between science and beauty through the work of scientists at CERN, in Geneva.

2017-04-26 | it

Black Holes: The Edge of All We Know

Black holes stand at the limit of what we can know. To explore that edge of knowledge, the Event Horizon Telescope links observatories across the world to simulate an earth-sized instrument. With this tool the team pursues the first-ever picture of a black hole, resulting in an image seen by billions of people in April 2019. Meanwhile, Hawking and his team attack the black hole paradox at the heart of theoretical physics—Do predictive laws still function, even in these massive distortions of space and time? Weaving them together is a third strand, philosophical and exploratory using expressive animation. “Edge” is about practicing science at the highest level, a film where observation, theory, and philosophy combine to grasp these most mysterious objects.

2020-03-18 | en

Fermilab: Science at Work

Six days. Three frontiers. One amazing lab. From 2010 to 2012, a film crew followed a group of scientists at the Department of Energy's Fermilab and filmed them at work and at home. This 40-minute documentary shows the diversity of the people, research and work at Fermilab. Viewers catch a true behind-the-scenes look of the United States' premier particle physics laboratory while scientists explain why their research is important to them and the world. Scientists included: Brendan Casey, Herman White, Craig Hogan, Denton Morris, Mary Convery, Bonnie Fleming, Deborah Harris, Dave Schmitz, Brenna Flaugher and Aron Soha.

2013-02-11 | en

Riding Light

In our terrestrial view of things, the speed of light seems incredibly fast. But as soon as you view it against the vast distances of the universe, it's unfortunately very slow. This animation illustrates, in realtime, the journey of a photon of light emitted from the surface of the sun and traveling across a portion of the solar system, from a human perspective. Liberties were taken with certain things like the alignment of planets and asteroids, as well as ignoring the laws of relativity concerning what a photon actually "sees" or how time is experienced at the speed of light, but overall the size and distances of all the objects were kept as accurate as possible. It was also decided to end the animation just past Jupiter to keep the running length below an hour.

2015-01-01 | en

The End of Quantum Reality

Almost one hundred years ago, the project to reduce the world to mathematical physics failed suddenly and completely: “One of the best-kept secrets of science,” physicist Nick Herbert writes, “is that physicists have lost their grip on reality.” The world, we are now told, emerges spontaneously, out of “nothing,” and constitutes a “multiverse,” where “anything that can happen will happen, and it will happen an infinite number of times.” Legendary reclusive genius Wolfgang Smith demonstrates on shockingly obvious grounds the dead end at which physics has arrived, and how we can “return, at last, to the real world.” The End of Quantum Reality introduces this extraordinary man to a contemporary audience which has, perhaps, never encountered a true philos-sophia, one as intimately at ease with the rigors of quantum physics as with the greatest schools of human wisdom.

2020-01-16 | en

Why It Was Almost Impossible to Make the Blue LED

The blue LED was supposed to be impossible—until a young engineer proposed a moonshot idea.

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The Conquest of Light

The film discusses the evolution and potential of using light waves, particularly coherent light, for communication. It highlights the development of lasers at Bell Telephone Laboratories, explaining how they produce a highly controlled and intense beam of light that could revolutionize communication. The film emphasizes the vast possibilities of lasers, including applications in telecommunications, surgery, and exploring the universe, suggesting that this technology represents a significant step in humanity's understanding and use of light.

1960-08-13 | en

Hawking: Can You Hear Me?

A documentary telling the remarkable human story of Stephen Hawking. For the first time, the personal archives and the testimonies of his closest family reveal both the scale of Hawking's triumphs and the real cost of his disability and success.

2021-09-20 | en

Stephen Hawking and The Theory of Everything

Twenty years after A Brief History of Time flummoxed the world with its big numbers and black holes, its author, Stephen Hawking, concedes that the "ultimate theory" he'd believed to be imminent - which would conclusively explain the origins of life, the universe and everything - remains frustratingly elusive. Yet despite his failing health and the seeming impossibility of the task, Hawking is still devoted to his work; an extraordinary drive that's captured here in fleeting interview snippets and footage of the scientist sharing a microwave dinner with some fawning PhD students. Though the pop-science tutorials that dapple the first of this two-part biography are winningly perky, Hawking, alas, remains as tricky to fathom as his boggling quantum whatnots

2009-03-24 | en

A Universe from Nothing

Lawrence Krauss gives a talk on our current picture of the universe, how it will end, and how it could have come from nothing. Krauss is the author of many bestselling books on Physics and Cosmology, including "The Physics of Star Trek."

2009-10-03 | en