`Me & Isaac Newton' illuminates inspiration

Movie review

XXX "Me & Isaac Newton," documentary directed by Michael Apted. 120 minutes. Varsity. No rating; suitable for general audiences.

In Paul Allen's latest production, "Me & Isaac Newton," seven scientists are interviewed by director Michael Apted, who made the "7 Up" series about the lives of British schoolchildren.

Funded by Allen's Clear Blue Sky Productions, which also backed Apted's similar "Inspirations," the movie is a stimulating examination of discoveries from varying disciplines, with an emphasis on problems we'll face in the new century. The script focuses on the childhood inspirations of the seven, their research, their experiences with intuition and sudden breakthroughs, and their expectations about the potential consequences of their work.

Dr. Michio Kaku is a theoretical physicist who helped develop the string theory. Maja Mataric experiments with artificial intelligence. Patricia Wright, perhaps the most inspiring and practical of the interviewees, is so committed to her lemur discoveries that she used her MacArthur Genius Grant to rescue their rain-forest home.

Some talk about a deity or "the blueprint we call life." The string theory is discussed, along with E. coli, AIDS and plutonium pollution. One talks about having "a lot of little `Eureka!' moments" and taking baby steps to an epiphany. Their ages range from 38 to 81.

The late Gertrude Elion, who died last year after filming was completed, won a Nobel Prize in medicine. Steven Pinker studies language and children. Karol Sikora researches gene therapy, while the pessimistic Ashok Gadgil is an environmental physicist who invented a water-purifying device.

"I don't think we have a lot of time left," says Gadgil, who senses "no divine purpose in the universe at all." But others project boundless enthusiasm.

"The most fun aspect of my job," says Kaku, "is that when I write down an equation, I realize that on the other side of the galaxy, 100,000 light-years away, there's perhaps another gentleman, or gentlewoman - or gentlething! - that is writing the same equation with a different notation."

Apted worried that the film might be visually uninteresting, and that he would have difficulty demonstrating the scientists' theories, but his choice of subjects allows the movie to transcend talking-heads limitations. Cinematographer Maryse Alberti's cameras visit Wright's Madagascar and Gadgil's South Africa, as well as Sikora's X-rays.

Among the special events at last spring's Seattle International Film Festival was a screening of "Me & Isaac Newton" for students from Lakeside and Garfield schools, attended by Kaku. He said he was chosen for the film partly because of his high profile as the author of the best sellers "Hyper Space" and "Visions." He's also appeared on PBS specials, and has his own radio show.

He decided to appear in the movie because Apted "wanted to show the passion that drives scientists . . . We're all born wondering, `Why does the sun shine?' `Where do the oceans come from?' Then, around high school and junior high, it gets crushed out of us, and I mean crushed. A program like this helps to rekindle that passion."

He likes the fact that Apted showed scientists at play. Kaku is shown ice skating: "We rented a skating rink at midnight. A lot of physicists like to do mountain climbing, but ice skating is what I do."

The movie's title was inspired by Kaku's suggestion of a link between his work (and play) and the past: "Once I am on the ice rink, it's just me and Isaac Newton."