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Especially recommended for high school students,
Me & Isaac Newton is an exhilarating experience, an inspiring documentary that profiles seven scientists who eloquently talk about how they became interested in their fields and where their remarkable lifelong journeys have taken them. Directed by Michael Apted, creator of the classic
7 Up films, this is a companion to another Apted documentary,
Inspirations, which explores the creative process. The seven scientists range in age from 33 to 81. One thing they have in common is the philosophy that "uncharted territory is the only one worth going into." New York housewife Patricia Wright, for example, could hardly have anticipated that when she bought an owl monkey as a pet that she would one day establish a lemur preserve in Madagascar and, in the process, save a rainforest. Perhaps the film's breakout "star" is theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, who as a child built an atom smasher in his garage and has since devoted his life to completing Albert Einstein's unfinished "theory of everything." It is Kaku who provides the film's whimsical title. When he is stuck in thought, he reveals, he goes ice skating. "It's just me and Isaac Newton, skating on the ice," he says. "I realize that Newton's laws have been well understood for 300 years. I don't have to bat my brains against quantum theory, against black holes and the big bang. It's just me and Isaac Newton, free of all the constraints I had before."
--Donald Liebenson
Video Description
Award-winning director Michael Apted (
Nell,
Gorillas in the Mist,
Coal Miner's Daughter), pursues the mind of scientists in this feature documentary. From Madagascar lemurs and a unified theory of everything to language disorders and robotic communities, the distinguished scientist featured in
Me & Isaac Newton reveal the creative side of the scientific endeavor. Beginning with their earliest scientific questions and including their most personal ponderings, these remarkable individuals reveal their histories and professional obligations to affect the world.
Featuring Gertrude Elion, Ashok Gadgil, Michio Kaku, Maja Mataric, Steven Pinker, Karol Sikora, Patricia Wright.
