Feb 27
Martha's Vineyard Film Society Tisbury, MA
TicketsJohn Huth
Donner Professor of Science, Harvard University
The Aeronauts— The rise of aeronautics and weather predictions
Program Description
Professor Huth will mix science and history as he speaks of the development of weather balloons as a tool for meteorology, looking at several important early examples of the technology.
Film Synopsis
Balloon pilot Amelia Wren and meteorologist James Glaisher find themselves in a fight for survival while pursuing scientific discoveries in a gas balloon in the 1860s.
In 1862, daredevil balloon pilot Amelia Wren (Felicity Jones) teams up with pioneering meteorologist James Glaisher (Eddie Redmayne) to advance human knowledge of the weather and fly higher than anyone in history. While breaking records and advancing scientific discovery, their voyage to the very edge of existence helps the unlikely pair find their place in the world they have left far below them. But they face physical and emotional challenges in the thin air, as the ascent becomes a fight for survival.
Banner image courtesy of Amazon Studios/Photofest
About the Speaker
Professor Huth works mainly in the field of experimental particle physics. His main interest is in electroweak symmetry breaking and is a member of the ATLAS Collaboration at the European Center for Nuclear Physics (CERN).
The ATLAS Experiment, along with its sister experiment, CMS, recently discovered the Higgs Boson in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Professor Huth is working on the decay of the Higgs into pairs of bottom quarks, and also on upgrades to the ATLAS Muon Spectrometer.
He has recently completed a book, The Lost Art of Finding Our Way, which describes techniques and cultures of navigation predating the invention of the nautical chronometer. This book is an outgrowth of his course, Primitive Navigation (SPU 26).
Professor Huth is a member of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study’s Venture Faculty Program. The goal of the Program is to foster multidisciplinary studies that cut across the boundaries of traditional academic fields.