Luminous

Something a little different

Heading into the weekend, I wanted to give you something a little different: a politics-free post.

Instead, I want to share with you the work of two of my colleagues here at Calvin University, Sam Smartt and Larry Molnar. Larry is a professor of Physics and Astronomy, and Sam is a documentary filmmaker and a professor in the Department of Communication.

More than a decade ago, Molnar took a bold step. He predicted the future explosion of a star.

To see what this entails, watch this:

Will he be right?  Other astronomers are skeptical, and professional reputations hang in the balance.  The film follows Larry Molnar’s years-long journey to test a high-stakes prediction, knowing it will play out squarely in the international spotlight.  

I’ve been watching Sam and Larry over the past several years as Larry has been investigating and Sam filming. Many years ago, I even brought my kids for a little video shoot in connection with the film. After years of intense labor, it’s finally out, and it provides a fascinating glimpse into how scientific inquiry works—something that has political implications, to be sure, but also deeply human ones:

In many ways, in fact, it’s a personal journey film masquerading as a science documentary. It offers a realistic story about how science works - not the scientific process as romanticized in the glossy pages of a textbook, but the struggle humans go through to understand even one small corner of our world.  It paints a picture of science not as a body of knowledge to be learned but as a process of investigation that involves uncertainty and risk.  And perhaps most importantly, it presents scientists as real people with hopes and fears and convictions and aspirations—and faith!--all of which shape the way they go about their work.

If you’re looking for a little break, for something different from the usual fare, something thought-provoking and maybe awe-inspiring, consider adding the film to your weekend playlist. It’s available now on major streaming platforms.

Also, stay tuned. A couple of weeks from now, I’ll have some documentary news of my own to share…