Hidden giants

Hidden giants

If only schools taught physics like the "Hidden giants" lecture. An out the box lecture with live original score by composer Yasheen Modi who plays the piano and violinist Siobhan Lloyd-Jones. The sound is immersive and the visuals by Darius Botha cinematic and bold. That lecture is so cool, it is an experience, it has life, it has feeling, it's the type of show that makes you fall in love with science. Science for me at school was never that cool, if it were, I'd have a PhD in Physics. That's how good I feel about Physics and the Universe right now! 

Dr. Luca Pontiggia serves at the lecturer for the show. He simplifies the Universe for the common man. He makes it fun and strips away all the fear factor. It's not intimidating, the visuals on the screen paint a picture, they tell a story. We learned so much about the nature of the Universe, it's inception, how old it is and how it expanded. We learned about Isaac Newton and the gravitational force. We learned about Albert Einstein and the theory of relativity. We learned about Black holes, spacetime and the singularity. Black holes are dead stars that are dense who pull in everything in their orbit and Supanovas are exploding stars! The lecture is divided into 3 acts: The object, the minds and the image.

Act 1 explores the cycle of stars and violent forces that give birth to black holes. Act 2 explores the great thinkers like Newton and Einstein who conceived of these mathematical formulas that enabled a better understanding of our Universe. Act 3 is proof, Einstein's theory of relativity is just that - theory. We need tangible evidence of a black hole, E.H (Event Horizon), Accretion Disc, Photon Sphere and the Singularity. Unbelievably, we get proof, we have a picture, Albert Einstein was right. We get this proof with the of help from lasers, telescopes stationed strategically all over the world, a dedicated team and supercomputers. This picture is everything, it's a scientific leap, proof of the Universe and existence, something to build on in our understanding of string-theory and perhaps the big bang itself.

This is such a cool lecture, something you can watch over and over again. Pity it has a limited run at Joburg Theatre, everyone should see it - it has a lot of enthusiasm, the theatre was filled to the brim, literally every seat was occupied. The teaching is world-class and the music - out of this world! You don't want it to end, you just want to learn and learn and learn. They made Physics and the Universe really cool.

https://youtu.be/hHarz-Pipp0?si=02WKKxvIuYP9kiqj