More than 4,000 students from area schools arrived Wednesday at City Bank Coliseum, bouncing with the excitement to watch a futuristic film on their field trip.
Organized by Texas Tech University’s Edward E. Whitacre College of Engineering, the College of Visual and Performing Arts, and the College of Education, the coliseum screened “Icarus at the Edge of Time” at 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. for the eager viewers.
“We had an extraordinary event earlier today,” said Juan Muñoz, senior vice president for institutional diversity, equity, and community engagement and vice provost for undergraduate education and student affairs. “And, you’re going to see this tremendous integration of science and curiosity and music.”
Above and below, Renowned physicist and Colombia University professor Brian Greene speaks to area elementary school students about science at the City Bank Coliseum in Lubbock on Wednesday.
Originally a novel written by renowned physicist and Columbia University professor Brian Greene, this multimedia adaptation featured a digital video, a full orchestra of Texas Tech faculty performing musical accompaniment by composer Philip Glass, and narration read by Greene himself.
According to Greene, he drew inspiration from the original ancient Greek myth of Icarus. In the original tale, Icarus and his father were imprisoned together and fashioned wings with feathers and wax. Icarus’ father, Daedalus, cautioned his son to not fly too close to the sun. Ignoring his father’s worry, Icarus flew too high; this act caused his wings to melt, which sent him plunging into the sea.
“When I first heard this story, I was like, ‘what are you talking about?’” Greene said as he addressed the crowd of students. “…Yeah, sometimes you need to do what you’re told, but a lot of times you don’t want to do what you are told.”
Greene clarified he is not talking about spiteful disobedience but innovative thinking.
“When you want to do something original, when you want to do something different, when you want to do something that can change the world in some significant way, of course you can’t do what someone tells you to do,” Greene said. “As I got older and became a scientist, it became ever more clear that if you’re going to do anything of significance, you’ve got to go against what your elders tell you to do. You’ve got to be willing to go against authority.”
According to Greene, in his “futuristic reimagining,” Icarus faces issues many scientists witness when on the edge of a breakthrough. Doubt circulates, but society must adjust its viewpoint.
While “Icarus at the Edge of Time” is a fictitious story, Greene mentioned all the science is factual and based on Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
“We all lead busy lives,” Greene said with a smile. “You kids have a lot of homework and assignments, and I understand that. I know because of that you let your knowledge of general relativity slip a little bit.”
Greene explained Einstein reshaped the ideas of gravity.
“Think of a trampoline and put a heavy object in the middle,” Greene said. “…It will curve, right? Now pretend you have a ball and roll the ball on the surface of the trampoline. The ball kind of goes in a curved trajectory on a curved surface, and Einstein said, ‘Take that basic, simple, intuitive idea and apply it to the universe.”
After Greene’s brief introduction, the lights dimmed, the orchestra began playing, and Greene cleared his throat to begin.
The story described a 14-year-old Icarus, born and raised on a ship headed to a newly discovered planet in search of extra-terrestrial life. Because of the lengthy journey, Icarus understands he, his children, and even grandchildren will die before the ship reaches the planet.
One day, Icarus sees a black hole and flies his exploratory ship on a venture to the black hole’s edge, despite his father forbidding him to do so. Circling around the gravitational pull, Icarus estimates he has been in flight for an hour.
Upon his arrival, Icarus cannot find his ship but instead sees many strange-looking vessels on a path. Boarding one, foreign beings explain Icarus traveled 10,000 years into the future due to the slowing of gravity around the black hole.
As technology has advanced to allow faster space travel, Icarus will be able to reach the planet within a few “Earth hours” and personally witness this planet. Unlike the original myth, Icarus is rewarded for his courage and disobedience.
In an interview with The Hub@TTU, Greene explained this multimedia production has been performed about 40 times across the country, mainly at performing arts centers.
According to Greene, his inspiration for the creation was children’s misconceptions about science. He noted many elementary students might get caught up in small basics, “when it’s really about the drama of discovery.”
A sequel to “Icarus at the Edge of Time” should be completed later this year, Greene said.
Several students chatted amongst themselves after the film. Many nodded appreciation, including Matthew Pinson, a sixth grader at Hutch Elementary School.
“It was interesting,” Pinson, 11, said while mentioning he wishes to attend college to study physics in the future. “It looked really cool and really scientific.”
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