'Humanist of the Atomic Age' is now available on DVD

Robert Wilson at the Main Ring groundbreaking in 1969.

Until recently, a film reel of a 1973 documentary about Robert Wilson has been sitting by itself in a canister in a drawer in the history room at the Fermilab Library. But thanks to a new film with similar themes, the documentary has been converted to DVD format and is now available for check-out from the Fermilab library.

Entitled "Robert Rathbun Wilson, Humanist of the Atomic Age," the documentary was filmed at Fermilab by a French company and aired on French television in 1974. In interviews with Wilson and his colleagues, the film tackles such topics as the political condition of the world at the time, where Fermilab might be in 20 years, Wilson's relationship with Robert Oppenheimer, and his attitudes about art and architecture. The film enjoyed moderate success in France, but was never aired on U.S. television, and was finally retired to the Fermilab archive.

Then, last year, members of the San Francisco-based film company Actual Films contacted Fermilab archivist Adrienne Kolb to request the use of some of the film's footage. Their 2006 documentary, "Wonders Are Many," chronicles a recent San Francisco opera entitled "Dr. Atomic." The opera is based on the 48 hours leading up to the first atomic bomb test at Alamogordo, New Mexico in July 1945, and includes Robert Wilson as a "conscience" character, said Kolb. "Wonders" uses both footage from the opera itself and original interviews with scientists and politicians during the Manhattan Project, including a 20-second clip from the 1973 Wilson documentary. The new film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last week and will air on PBS.

An affiliate of the production company converted the 1973 film reel to Beta SP and DVD formats and returned them to Fermilab. Currently one copy of the DVD is available for loan from the library, but information resources manager Heath O'Connell hopes to have more copies available soon. To find out more about requesting the DVD, click here.

Solid brass: The Chicago Brass Quintet gave a sold-out performance on the Wilson Hall second floor crossover Sunday. The quintet formed in 1964, with the goal of "promoting the appreciation and enjoyment of chamber music," according to their website. If you missed the concert, you can hear them play here.

New Scientist
January 29, 2007:

The Large Hadron Collider: Bring it on!

IT'S official: 2007 is the year of the LHC. In case you haven't heard, the initials stand for the Large Hadron Collider, which is nearing completion at the CERN laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland. Just a snowball's throw from Mont Blanc, it is not only the hottest thing in physics but also the largest, most elaborate scientific instrument of all time.

After 20 years of anticipation, the LHC is set to switch on this November, and soon thereafter CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, will become the proud operator of the world's most powerful particle accelerator. It will smash protons together with seven times the energy and at 100 times the rate of the top collider to date, the Tevatron at Fermilab near Chicago. That will allow it to probe the interactions of particles down to the unprecedented scale of 10(17) centimetres, roughly the size of the universe a trillionth ...

Read More (If you don't have a New Scientist subscription, stop by the Public Affairs Office in Wilson Hall. We have the story pinned up near the front door.)