BENGALURU: Particle accelerators are possibly humanity’s greatest invention. These metaphorical time machines, telescopes, and microscopes all rolled into one often span kilometres, flinging the smallest objects known to humanity at incredible velocities. They help us recreate some of the universe’s first moments, explore the nature of reality itself, and advance technology in fields such as medicine, materials science, and information technology. Over the weekend, a documentary titled 'Cyclotron', which explores the story of the world’s oldest functional particle accelerator, premiered at the Bangalore International Centre(BIC) in Domlur. The film is available online for free on BIC’s Youtube channel.
Directed by Jahnavi Phalkey, writer, science historian, and founding-director of Science Gallery Bengaluru, the documentary tells the compelling story of a machine that was originally operational in 1936 at the University of Rochester, brought to India in 1967 by a determined Indian scientist, and is still operational today at Panjab University in Chandigarh. The film doesn’t just document the machine; it delves into the lives of the people who have kept it running.
“I had looked at this facility in Chandigarh over several summers during my PhD days; this was in the early 2000s. I spent a lot of time in the lab getting to know the people and looking for documents. It was most interesting because, unlike other facilities of its kind, the people in this case, were all alive and around. It was fascinating because I got to meet people and understand their motivations in their own words,” Phalkey shares, adding, “I felt that the value I got from listening to people who were around was huge. While a historian’s lens is valuable, it is more so when you can no longer listen to the people themselves. Here was an opportunity where people were actually around, so it made sense to think of film as a medium.”
The third-ever built and spanning just 27 inches in radius-practically minuscule compared to its modern-day counterparts, the cyclotron’s move from the United States to India was a bold endeavour led by a young physicist from the University of Chandigarh. “When it was decommissioned in 1965, it was still the only functioning one. This young physicist, Prof Harnam Singh Hans, audaciously decided that India needed this and was going to bring it over,” Phalkey recounts.
The film captures the challenges of relocating and operating such a complex piece of equipment in India, where infrastructure and technical support were limited. “The work was literally like rocket science, requiring daily recalibration. Odds were really challenging: there’s no industry to rely on for parts or support, you can’t rely on electricity, trained people are scarce, and budgets are low,” she says. “For example, Göttingen in Germany never got their cyclotron to work. That’s why the fact that they got it to work is actually tremendous, and it was important for me to hear it from them.”
Cyclotron is more than just a historical account; it’s a commentary on the broader scientific research scene in India. “The goal of the film is to explore what it means to do science every day in a regional university in India.
What does it mean to do science there? Who are the people whose lives are dedicated to research and teaching, and what does that mean?” she says, adding, “It’s about aspirations, actually. Most of my colleagues and friends who understand the scientific establishment from the inside feel the pathos of it more than the aspiration. When they brought it to India, it was aspirational. But by the end, you feel the pain. For me, it’s still a film about why they keep doing what they do despite all odds. There should be more films about science in India that are not about discoveries or big figures but about what it means to do science and why it matters without being pedagogical or didactic.”