Over the weekend, the Oppenheimer family invited me to San Francisco for the big film debut!

If you haven’t seen the movie, you should: It’s big. With big ideas. A portrayal of the challenges faced by humanity during a tumultuous period in history.

I think it was particularly heavy because it was released in 2023: On the heels of a pandemic, in the face of AI discovery, gene editing, space exploration, and during ongoing conversations around power, trust, and responsibility.

Before the screening, I joined a colloquium of 150 physicists, government officials, and technology leaders discussing this movie’s meaning in today’s landscape. I was certainly out of my element, but the conversations were eerily familiar to public health.

Here are some themes I jotted down:

• It takes a crisis to perform in this nation. The spirit and power of institutions can be grand when we put our minds to it. But do we always have to be reactive? We can proactively move at the speed and scale, too.
• Complex vs. complicated problems. A car engine is complicated; traffic is complex. Each requires unique approaches. Big science problems are complex, complicated, or both.
• Ethical dilemmas and moral responsibility in scientific advancements. Tread carefully. Ensure that our pursuit of innovation does not compromise our moral compass.
• What is public investment in science for? To improve human connectedness. To seek to inform, not control. This can conflict with private interests and politics.
• Big science includes international cooperation, knowledge sharing, and unity.
• What happens when a scientist changes their mind? It’s often villainized. But, typically, where one stands on a topic isn’t so black and white.
• Science and technology can create an opportunity to talk, just like the end of the pandemic. But followed by a frustrating pattern: Our institutions don’t match the conversations with systematic change.

Bottom line

The movie is a striking reminder of today’s challenges and how these problems have been with us for a long time. With great power comes great responsibility, and the intersection of science and technology is notwithstanding.

Next up: Barbie! I bet we can also find public health themes in there, too :).

Love, YLE

“Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE)” is written by Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, MPH Ph.D.—an epidemiologist, wife. During the day, she is a senior scientific consultant to several organizations. At night she writes this newsletter. Her main goal is to “translate” the ever-evolving public health world so that people will be well-equipped to make evidence-based decisions. This newsletter is free, thanks to the generous support of fellow YLE community members. To support this effort, subscribe below: