Another video in the Big Science Observations series has been released. We’re filming a few more next week, so look forward to them.

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Big Science is still working on the pilot video, but the Winter weather at Green Bank means we can’t finish until Spring. In the mean time look for a Big Science video series on YouTube.

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The Big Science team is working hard this month to prepare a “sizzle reel” following a successful Kickstarter fundraiser that brought in $22,237 Canadian dollars. The sizzle reel will accompany a pitch to networks and streaming services for a possible television show about the employees and community at major science facilities around the world. Already, the team has made two research trips to the Green Bank Observatory in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. We’ll keep you updated as things progress. 

The team would like to thank the backers who made this project possible:

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One of the overarching goals of the Big Science TV project is to break down the perception that scientists are different from everyone else. There’s a common view that we sit in an ivory tower of academia, looking down upon the unwashed masses and telling people what to think and what to believe. In reality we have jobs that can be tiring and frustrating, we pay our bills, save for retirement, and worry about our kids. 

Like most folks, our jobs also depend upon a vast network of colleagues. Everyone from fellow scientists to technicians and machinists to the folks who keep track of all the paperwork every organization seems to be buried in. With Big Science, we want to focus on the stories we have in common, so that viewers can see a bit of themselves in the folks that make science possible.

That’s why I’m so excited that Arthur B. McDonald has voiced his support of the project. You might not recognize him (on the left in the picture above) but he’s renowned in the physics community for his work on neutrinos. Together with Takaaki Kajita (right, above) he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 2015 for work on neutrino oscillations, which demonstrates that neutrinos have mass. Their work has impacted everything from particle physics to cosmology. McDonald wrote to us stating:

I am pleased to see the series entitled Big Science that is being developed to describe this area of science to the general public. I look forward to seeing the episodes that will emphasize the team aspects of this work, showing the wide variety of personal contributions that enable these Big Science projects to provide a much greater understanding of our universe.

As a Nobel Laureate, McDonald is about as ivory tower as you can get. But his work was done through the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, a large detector buried deep in a nickel mine. The infrastructure necessary to keep the observatory up and running is large and complex, and McDonald as often said how vitally important the support work is. He has seen first hand many of the stories we want to tell in Big Science.

So thanks to Professor McDonald and everyone else who’s supported the project so far. If you like to join us, check out the Kickstarter page. We still have a little ways to go, and every bit helps. Together we can make this happen.

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Whenever I give a presentation to the general public, there’s one type of question I always get. Why should we spend money on this stuff? What good does it do? What about people who are starving in this country? What’s in it for me? The answer they’re looking for is typically an argument that this science will lead to something tangible. A better cell phone, draught resistant wheat, self-driving cars. But those kinds of breakthroughs typically come from targeted research, not pure science. The goal of studying gas clouds in distant solar systems is not better cell phones, but a deeper understanding of the cosmos. How could that possibly affect you on a personal level? It affects you in lots of subtle ways, such as increasing political stability in the world. 

The space race began as a fierce rivalry between the two superpowers of the Cold War. After the Soviet triumph of sending the first human into space, the Americans sent 12 men to the Moon. But while tensions between the two countries remained high, there was a growing understanding that collaborative space exploration would benefit both sides. By 1975 the two countries worked together to achieve the first international docking between a Soviet and American spacecraft. This collaboration continues to this day. The International Space Station, for example, involves countries all over the world, and Russian spacecraft regularly ferry American astronauts to and from the station. But why would two diametrically opposed countries collaborate on an expensive science project? One big reason was that it kept political lines open. The US and Russia were still political rivals, but they weren’t politically isolated. Through the space program they developed ways to work together, and this may have played a role in limiting escalation. No one wanted to see another Cuban missile crisis.

The famous 1975 handshake between Russian cosmonaut Aleksey Leonov and US astronaut Tom Stafford. Credit: NASA

There is a political impact to any large science project. I saw this first hand when I visited the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) in northern Chile. Chile is one of the strongest economies in South America, but it is largely a resource economy. Logging and mining exports are its economic pillars, and they are limited resources. So Chile would like to expand other areas such as finance, tourism and technology. ALMA is part of that plan. Part of the agreement for ALMA is that Chile has an active role in its operation and research. Some of the components for ALMA must be built in Chile, which helps strengthen its tech manufacturing sector. The benefit for the US is that Chile picks up some of the cost for ALMA, and it strengthens political and economic ties with Chile.

Big science projects are necessarily collaborative international ventures. In doing them we not only gain scientific knowledge, we learn how to work together politically and economically. And that’s a big benefit.

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One of the goals of Big Science is to tell the stories you don’t hear about scientific research. 

For example, when I was visiting the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA), I met a young woman who worked on computer security for the project’s data center. ALMA is a billion dollar facility, and it collects so much data that it has to be distributed to other systems in the United States and Europe. All of this data has to be kept secure, and the data system has to be running smoothly or else the project fails.

In talking to this woman, she wasn’t a genius professor from a prestigious university. She wasn’t even a scientist. She was just a girl who loved computers, went to college to study computer security, and got an internship to work on ALMA’s network. She took the internship because the work was interesting and she got to visit Chile. Her love of computers led to vital work on a billion dollar project.

On your typical science show her story is never told. She’s not an important scientist, and she doesn’t manage big equipment. But her story is fascinating, and it’s worth telling.

There’s a lot of talk about encouraging girls to keep their interest in STEM. We can do that by emphasizing the brilliant scientific discoveries women have made and continue to make. But we can also do that by showing the story of a girl who just loved computers, and who followed that love on a wonderful adventure.

There are lots of stories just like hers all over the world, and you can help us tell them.

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It is often thought that science is about data, but at its heart science is about stories. The universe has a story to tell, and through science we can learn a part of that story. When I write about scientific discoveries, I try to tell that story. If I tell the story well, then it becomes both understandable and relevant to readers. But there is a part of the scientific story we don’t often tell. That’s why I’ve been working on a new project. 

Many of the breakthroughs in modern science come from big facilities such as ALMA, LIGO and CERN. These are massive projects that require the support of thousands of people. Everything from cooking to engineering comes together to make these facilities possible. Many facilities are also in remote locations. They have a huge impact on the surrounding communities, often entering the sacred spaces of indigenous cultures. The interactions can be filled with tension, but they also enrich this human endeavor we call science.

Part of communicating science is not just how you tell the story but also what stories you choose to tell. For about a year I’ve been working with journalist Mark Gillespie, and Canadian producers Steven Mitchell and Al Magee to develop a new kind of science show. One that will tell the stories behind the science headlines. Steven and Al have decades of experience in television storytelling, and have won several awards for their outstanding work. They also share my desire to present science honestly and without hype. Mark has worked in some of the most remote areas of the world, and knows how bring out stories that are meaningful and powerful.

For the past year we’ve been developing stories and building connections to several science facilities and their surrounding communities. The next step to making the project real is to film a “sizzle reel” demonstrating the show to the networks. It will be filmed on location at Green Bank Observatory. But that’s going to take some funding. So today we’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign. With your support we can make this project a reality.

You can find the project at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/64470060/big-science. Obviously I’d love if you contribute financially, but we also need as much media buzz as we can get. The more you share it on social media, the better chance it has to succeed.

Many of you already support One Universe at a Time, which has made it possible for me to tell the stories of science. I very much hope you’ll support this new project as well.

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