Dreams that inspired great discoveries
64Humans often dream of great impossible utopic plans. Thanks to the power of the dreamed reality and to the human perseverance, the impossible sometimes seems possible. Big dreams inspire great discoveries: a combination of the quantum theory and the relativity theory, become rich by mining in space or feeding and healing humanity with insects.
Original title: The dreamers
Juan Maldacena is dreaming of one theory. He is one of the most famous theoretical physicists of the world. He is called by his colleagues the new Einstein because he has done important work in the search for a theory of everything. With such theory, physicists hope to unite Einstein's relativity theory and quantum mechanics so that all natural forces and all particles will be described with one model. It is the "holy grail" of theoretical physics. Maldacena's model, the so-called holographic principle, is seen as a big step in the right direction, and Maldacena is therefore renowned as the deepest thinker of this time.
Segenet Kelemu is the director of the largest insect-proof research institute of the world. We live with a lot of people on a limited planet, which means we have to deal with our resources smartly. Segenet says, when it comes to food supply, insects are invaluable. And also for the eradication of devastating diseases like malaria, the key also lies in insects.
Rick Tumlinson is one of the founders of Deep Space Industries, a company that wants to earn money from alien trade. By using mining on asteroids, for instance, or harvesting solar energy in space and radiating it to the earth. For Tumlinson, those kinds of operations are just the beginning. He is dreaming of trees planting on the moon, catching butterflies on Mars and then a massive colonization of space by humanity.
The Mind of the Universe is an international science documentary series and open source platform about the rapid evolution of our knowledge. It explores the human destiny and the world of tomorrow through the eyes of the greatest thinkers and scientists of our time. In each episode, a typical human quality takes centre stage, in which the scientists and their research are embedded.
Originally broadcasted by VPRO in 2017.
© VPRO Backlight June 2017
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Credits:
Presented by: Robbert Dijkgraaf
Editor in chief and script: Rob van Hattum
Direction & Editor: Kees Brouwer, Gijs Swantee, Sander Cijsouw
Research: Frederique Melman, Remy van den Brand, Anna Gimbrere, Wiesje Kuijpers, Gerko Wessel
Production: Madeleine Somer, Jordy van Langen (stage), May-Linn Tsiang (stage)
Cross Media Manager: Eef Grob
Redaction: Elmar Veerman, Marijn van der Waa, Bram van Dijk (stage), Imani van Oosterhout (stage), Yfke van der Ploeg (stage)
Media Manager & Assistant: Olivier Schuringa, Pardis Faqiri (stage)
Camera: Chris Blokhuis, Hans Bouma, Martijn Cousijn, Jacko van ’t Hof, Job Kraaijeveld, Sjoerd Vogel, Karsten Hohmann
Sound: Daan Arens, Dennis Kersten, Jillis Schriel, Mark Witte,Gregor Koppenburg, Bidisha Das, Pedro Rodriques da Silva
Translation: Lei Fang, Sasja Yakovleva, Alexandra de Vries
Script editing: Caroline Ligthart
Editing: Jeroen van den Berk, Sander Cijsouw, Tim van der Maden, Olivier van der Zee
Design: Jurriaan Schalken
Composition: Jos Jansen (Big Orange)
International partners and Education: Fred Mulder
In cooperation with: Tijl van Huijkelom
English, French and Spanish subtitles: Ericsson.
French and Spanish subtitles are co-funded by European Union.