Maybe I’m not even here, and other crazy, beautiful stuff physics told me
In her short animated documentary Why Do I Study Physics?, Xiangjun Shi finds beauty in both the orderly world of physics and the chaos of real life. Touching on concepts as diverse as gravity, time and parallel universes, she offers a personal response to the fundamental questions that physicists are trying to answer.
Director: Xiangjun Shi
videoAstronomy
Visualisations explore what the deep future holds for our night sky
6 minutes
videoMathematics
After centuries of trying, we’ve yet to arrive at a perfect way to map colour
20 minutes
videoMusic
A riveting audiovisual dive into what makes sounds harmonious, or not
28 minutes
videoMathematics
Spiral into the ‘golden ratio’ – and separate the myths from the maths
4 minutes
videoHistory of science
How we came to know the size of the Universe – and what mysteries remain
26 minutes
videoArchitecture
A lush tour of Fallingwater – the Frank Lloyd Wright design that changed architecture
14 minutes
videoOceans and water
A stunning visualisation explores the intricate circulatory system of our oceans
5 minutes
videoHistory of science
Ideas ‘of pure genius’ – how astronomers have measured the Universe across history
29 minutes
videoComputing and artificial intelligence
A future in which ‘artificial scientists’ make discoveries may not be far away
9 minutes