Alongside that, it reveals the scientific mindset what motivates them. It not only touches on the basics of what the unknowns they're investigating are, but also how they go about investigating or discovering these things - the day-to-day realities of actually "doing" Science. In this documentary, nine scientists working on some of the hardest problems across all fields (the "most unknowns") meet each other. The film review site "100 Films in a Year", says:
Robert Abele of the Los Angeles Times identifies two disarming motifs expressed in the film: "a thirst for knowledge and a belief that there's so much more to learn about what makes us and our world", and "The collegial awe that accompanies a proud nerd's introduction to another's elaborate measuring machines". As observational astronomer Rachel Smith describes her work at one point, "You've got a puzzle with a million, or billion pieces. As different as their backgrounds are, the scientists chosen by Cheney are a uniformly cheerful and eager-to-pitch-in bunch who are more excited than daunted by the odds stacked against their various projects. The New Yorker's Sara Larson said director Cheney's "goal isn't so much to inform as to inspire, and it's vicariously exciting to watch his subjects step out of their own research and into that of their peers." Ĭheney places viewers in each setting with sweeping, sparkling vistas of strange beauty that would make David Attenborough weep. Jaworowski said the film "works best as inspiration to delve deeper into these disciplines, and as a celebration of science". Ken Jaworowski's The New York Times review agreed, saying the documentary "extols the wonders of science and of all that's yet to discover", but a drawback is that with 10 minute episodes, it is difficult to grasp the concepts, and the scientists are less skilled as interviewers.
Howland also commented on the film's beautiful settings as "photogenic", saying the science was not "deeply explained", but "the scientists' fascination is contagious". Critical response ĭaphne Howland of The Village Voice praised the concept of the film as raising "some of the grandest, if also the most basic, mysteries - like our perception of time or whether there's life on other planets". Finally it was posted as nine individual episodes on YouTube. In the summer it began streaming on Netflix, which had global rights and made it available in 25 languages. Motherboard Tech by Vice Media used a "multimodal release strategy", premiering the film at the Copenhagen International Film Festival on Mait was released in theaters on May 18, 2018. The documentary was directed by Ian Cheney, with advisor Werner Herzog, and was supported by a grant from Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation initiative "dedicated to engaging everyone with the process of science". Scientists who interviewed each other included microbiologist Jennifer Macalady, physicist Davide D'Angelo, psychologist Axel Cleeremans, astrobiologist Luke McKay, astrophysicist Rachel Smith, geobiologist Victoria Orphan, physicist Jun Ye, neuroscientist Anil Seth, and cognitive psychologist Laurie R. a scientific game of tag", "global game of tag with experts", "beads on a chain of discovery", "a daisy chain of one-on-one interviews / lab tours", "an intellectual relay race or high-IQ speed dating", and "a global relay of encounters in an effort to find commonality of language and purpose as life's big questions are explored". who visit one another blind-date style", "a round-robin of wonder", "a daisy chain of nine curious scientific minds.
Reviewers described the interviews variously as "a La Ronde of intellectuals", "nine scientists. Then the scientist whose research has just been discussed heads off to a new location (usually remote, always beautifully lensed) where somebody from a separate school of study tells them about what they're up to. Film Journal International said, "In each of the nine segments, one scientist travels to meet another scientist of a different discipline to learn about the research they're doing. The film presents interviews with nine scientists, each conducted by a scientist in another discipline-"a geobiologist, molecular biologist, various physicists studying space and time, cognitive psychologists, and a neuroscientist-who take turns visiting one another to get a cursory taste of the other's field", according to The Village Voice.