In his latest documentary, perennial humanitarian Michael Apted (director of the 7 Up series) aims to make science accessible to the masses. His method? Putting a human face on scientists. Apted interviews seven scientists from several different fields, including the late Gertrude Elion, a pharmaceutical chemist from Chapel Hill who fought childhood leukemia. Apted gives his subjects free reign, and encourages their metaphoric meanderings. The film’s title is taken from one such riff. Physicist Michio Kaku ice-skates whenever he hits the theoretical wall. “It’s just me and Isaac Newton, skating on the ice,” Kaku says. “Newton’s laws have been well understood for 300 years. I don’t have to bat my brains against the quantum theory, against black holes and the big bang. It’s just me and Isaac Newton, free of all the constraints I had before.” See “Opening Friday” for details.
