This is a five-part short documentary series about the Schmidt Science Fellows produced by Oxford-based film company Angel Sharp Media Ltd, in the UK. The series showcases the stories of individuals within the Schmidt Science Fellows program, whose pioneering interdisciplinary research is making waves in the fields of engineering, mathematics, biology, astronomy and physics.
Project Titles:
Hal Holmes – Down to the Core,
Mattia Serra – Organizing Chaos,
Jina Ko – A Needle in a Haystack,
Karl Barber – Interpreting Memories,
Jielai Zhang – A Flash of Discovery
Project Synopses:
Hal Holmes – Down to the Core:
At first Hal’s outlandish idea to repurpose a unique ultrasound tool used for cancer treatment, to rapidly break down and read the DNA of timber, baffled fellow scientists. However Hal’s brainwave might just provide an answer to the vast illegal logging trade: A way to instantly tell the origin of every single piece of wood.
Runtime: 04:34
Mattia Serra – Organizing Chaos:
Mattia was drawn to mathematics as something elegant, inarguable, and capable of concisely representing pretty much anything. Using complex mathematical ‘chaos systems’, he is even able to predict where the Coast Guard should search for people lost at sea. Now, he is pivoting to delve into the biological chaos inherent in human cells, finding patterns that can point the way to predicting or correcting pathological diseases.
Runtime: 05:23
Jina Ko – A Needle in a Haystack:
There are billions of minuscule vesicles floating around in the human body. A tiny hidden few of them are indicative of cancer or other diseases. Bioengineer, Jina is risking her career to try to find that needle in a haystack, and revolutionise how disease is diagnosed.
Runtime: 04:55
Karl Barber – Interpreting Memories:
The death of Karl’s best friend drove him to delve into the uncharted memory inside our immune systems, in the hope that it might hold the secret to detecting cancerous cells earlier than ever before.
Runtime: 05:14
Jielai Zhang – A Flash of Discovery:
Astronomers are puzzled by mysterious rapid flashes in deep space that are as bright as the explosion of a star. The drive to understand these ‘fast radio bursts’ has led Jielai to study the medical technique of ‘deep learning’, in the hope that once she has finished her work on fetal development, she will be able to apply her mastery of the technology to the distant flashes in the universe.
Runtime: 05:03
Add to playlist