It was launched last Friday (25), at the Gleb Wataghin Institute of Physics (IFGW), the first animated short film from the Animaphysics project. Nine minutes long and with an infectious soundtrack, "Quarks and Leptons" translates in a simple and fun way a fundamental question for understanding the world: "what are things made of?" The launch was attended by students, researchers and professionals involved in the production of the film, as well as the director of IFGW, Pasqual José Pagliuso, and the scientific director of Fapesp and professor at the Institute of Physics, Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz.
The animation tells the story of Mari, a smart and cool teenager who wants to go to the concert of her favorite rock band, Raio Cósmico. But to get her father to buy the tickets, she needs to find out what's inside a trunk. From this challenge, Mari and the audience learn important lessons about the elementary particles that were all things, quarks and leptons. Throughout the video, links to other videos and materials complement the content shown in the short. In total, 11 videos Presented by IFGW Physics students and members of the Animaphysics project, they explain how knowledge of Particle Physics evolved, what these particles are, what an accelerator is for, among other curiosities.
The production of "Quarks and Léptons" is part of the actions planned by the Fapesp Thematic Project "Challenges for the 21st Century in Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics", which is coordinated by Marcelo Guzzo, script and direction by Maurício Squarisi, from the Center for Campinas Animation Cinema.
Mission to update Physics teaching
The main goal of the thematic project "Challenges for the 21st Century in Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics" is to make science more accessible to diverse audiences, mainly primary and secondary school students. During the launch, Carlos Henrique Brito Cruz assessed that it would be important for other projects to have the same result obtained by Animaphysics.
"Many organizations in Brazil are dedicated to (scientific) communication, but I have the impression that this effort will be more successful if it is more widespread, exactly as Marcelo (Guzzo) is doing here. Fapesp has around 400 projects themes working. If everyone had an initiative like this, we would have 400 results like this in the State of São Paulo. The problem is that they don't, most of them just stay in science, which is great. But forget that we are at a time when we need to tell you a little about the results", commented Brito Cruz, who classifies the animation as an exemplary initiative.
However, the project's contribution is not restricted to scientific dissemination. According to Marcelo Guzzo, Animaphysics videos can also serve as support for basic education students and teachers to update Physics teaching. He explains that the schools' current curriculum provides for the teaching of an atomic model formulated at the beginning of the 20th century, which has now been surpassed by more current content. "Today we have the Common National Curricular Base, which is very recent, and is a curriculum common to all schools in Brazil and is the minimum you have to teach. This base provides for you to improve the atomic model. This Video then fits into this current need of schools for this improvement, this modernization", explains Marcelo.
After the release of "Quarks and Leptons", the idea is that two other animated shorts will be produced by the team. One of them on Neutrino Physics, a specialist topic at the search group of which Marcelo is part, and another on Cosmic Rays. This theme has a special relationship with the history of IFGW itself: one of its founders, physicist César Lattes, dedicated his studies to Cosmic Rays. Today, the Institute has a department dedicated to research in this area.
Director of IFGW, Pasqual José Pagliuso, believes it is essential that the unit's researchers are concerned not only with the quality of their research, but also with its dissemination to society. "It's an extremely important moment, in which the university has to do more and more scientific dissemination, it has to bring our language closer to the language of ordinary citizens, in all areas of science. So I'm proud to see IFGW, more once, taking the lead in this initiative with a project of this magnitude", comments Pasqual.
Science, arts and curiosity
With 45 years of experience in producing animated films, this was the first time that Maurício Squarisi worked on a project aimed at the scientific dissemination of Physics concepts. He says that the invitation to participate in the project came after Marcelo Guzzo learned about the work already carried out by Squarisi in the area of History, but that bringing Physics and animation together was a challenge.
Maurício explains that he had to attend some of Marcelo's classes and had constant scientific guidance from the team, so that all concepts were worked on with the precision required by science. "I discovered that the scientist is as creative as the artist, the scientist's raw material is the same as that of the artist, which is curiosity. They are curious all the time, so this exchange was really cool. And I also grew a lot in my way of working", celebrates Maurício.
