Catching Light – New Video!

I have many shortcomings, like leaving people uncertain whether they’re supposed to laugh or not. But you can’t blame me for lack of vision. I see a future in which science has become a cultural good, like sports, music, and movies. We’re not quite there yet, but thanks to the Foundational Questions Institute (FQXi) we’re a step closer today.



This is the first music video in a series of three, sponsored by FQXi, for which I’ve teamed up with Timo Alho and Apostolos Vasileiadis. And, believe it or not, all three music videos are about physics!

You’ve met Apostolos before on this blog. He’s the one who, incredibly enough, used his spare time as an undergraduate to make a short film about gauge symmetry. I know him from my stay in Stockholm, where he completed a masters degree in physics. Apostolos then, however, decided that research wasn’t for him. He has since founded a company – Third Panda  – and works as freelance videographer.

Timo Alho is one of the serendipitous encounters I’ve made on this blog. After he left some comments on my songs (mostly to point out they’re crappy) it turned out not only is he a theoretical physicist too, but we were both attending the same conference a few weeks later. Besides working on what passes as string theory these days, Timo also plays the keyboard in two bands and knows more than I about literally everything to do with songwriting and audio processing and, yes, about string theory too.

Then I got a mini-grant from FQXi that allowed me to coax the two young men into putting up with me, and five months later I stood in the hail, in a sleeveless white dress, on a beach in Crete, trying to impersonate electromagnetic radiation.

This first music video is about Einstein’s famous thought experiment in which he imagined trying to catch light. It takes on the question how much can be learned by introspection. You see me in the role of light (I am part of the master plan), standing in for nature more generally, and Timo as the theorist trying to understand nature’s working while barely taking notice of it (I can hear her talk to me at night).

The two other videos will follow early May and mid of May, so stay tuned for more!

Update April 21: 

Since several people asked, here are the lyrics. The YouTube video has captions - to see them, click on the CC icon in the bottom bar.

[Chorus]
I am part of the master plan
Every woman, every man
I have seen them come and go
Go with the flow

I have seen that we all are one
I know all and every one
I was here when the sun was born
Ages ago

[Verse]
In my mind
I have tried
Catching light
Catching light

In my mind
I have left the world behind

Every time I close my eyes
All of nature's open wide
I can hear her
Talk to me at night

In my mind I have been trying
Catching light outside of time
I collect it in a box
Collect it in a box

Every time I close my eyes
All of nature's open wide
I can hear her
Talk to me at night

[Repeat Chorus]

[Interlude, Einstein recording]
The scientific method itself
would not have led anywhere,
it would not even have been formed
Without a passionate striving for a clear understanding.
Perfection of means
and confusion of goals
seem in my opinion
to characterize our age.

[Repeat Chorus]