April 17, 2026
In the new movie Project Hail Mary, our heroes draw on science, engineering and ingenuity to save the world from an astrophysical blight. And they have more than astrophysics know-how in their back pocket. Using their understanding of astronomy, planetary science, microbiology, materials science, and existential risk, they fight to steer humanity from the impending cataclysm.
Project Hail Mary is a story about science saving the world. In March, the University of Chicago and Argonne teamed up to celebrate the science of Project Hail Mary with offerings for science and science-fiction fans.
Advance screening with expert panel
What better way to unpack the science of Project Hail Mary than to watch it on the big screen with a pail of popcorn and then gab about it with scientists immediately afterward? On March 11, Argonne, the University of Chicago Physical Sciences Division, and the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering hosted a special prerelease screening of the movie, which was followed by a panel discussion on the movie’s science. Could the exotic microbe that threatens existence be possible in our world? What’s with the alloy that the spaceship is made of? How do the planets in the movie compare with Earth? The audience of Argonne and UChicago fans and followers peppered the panel with questions. Read the event recap.
Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo panels on science and storytelling
In late March, 300 sci-fi fans packed into a conference room at the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo —affectionately known as C2E2—to hear scientists from the University of Chicago Physical Sciences Division and Argonne talk about the science of Project Hail Mary and other blockbuster movies at a panel titled “Project Hail Mary and the Science Behind Blockbuster Sci-Fi.”
Argonne science communicator Gillian King-Cargile moderated the expert panel.
“I get to be professionally excited about science and ask my burning questions of scientists,” she said, calling author Andy Weir “a nerd’s nerd.”
Daniel Holz, UChicago professor in the Departments of Physics and Astronomy & Astrophysics and chair of the group that sets the Doomsday Clock, related the protagonists’ charge to save the world from disaster with our own efforts to mitigate existential risk.
“The film talks about this very well: Scientists come together, and you problem-solve, you try to figure out a way forward,” Holz said. “Everyone here is working on things that we think will help society long-term.”
UChicago associate professor in the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics Leslie Rogers enjoyed the story’s take on extraterrestrial life.
“Having a planet with microbes in the atmosphere, with intelligent beings—that is the holy grail that my whole field is searching for,” she said, noting of the more than 6,000 confirmed exoplanets, “Earth is the singular example we know that supports life.”
The potentially catastrophic microbe at the heart of Project Hail Mary opened the door for Argonne scientist Dion Antonopoulos to talk about the rich diversity of microbial life on Earth—in waterways, in plants, in extremely hot environments and in our gastrointestinal tracts.
“We contain worlds within worlds,” said Antonopoulos, a microbiologist and the director of Argonne’s Biosciences Division. Nature is abundant with microbes, producing them far beyond human powers to grow them in the lab. “This is the great plate count anomaly: We can cultivate only 1% of the biodiversity that’s out there at the microbial level.”
An exotic structural material called xenonite was another featured player in the movie. Argonne postdoctoral researcher and materials scientist Gregory Grant said it was fun to see an engineer make cool crystals in the movie.
“The idea of xenonite is fascinating. It’s a miracle material. It’s very hard, it’s very resilient to the environment, and it can be processed to have various properties like transparency. It’s a sci-fi material, of course, but if we could make it, it would be groundbreaking,” Grant said. “It honestly reminds me of how we use steel. Steel is really interesting, because you can make it malleable or hard, magnetic or not, and so forth. And you can cast it into all kinds of shapes just like xenonite.”
Science shorts—videos on sci-fi and Argonne science
The film Project Hail Mary is 156 minutes. Andy Weir’s 2021 book, on which the movie is based, is 496 pages. What are those who prefer bite-sized sci-fi to do? How about short-form video? Argonne’s video shorts are a digestible highlight reels that cover the movie’s science and connect it with Argonne’s real-world, high-impact research. Check out the shorts on AI, astrophysics, materials and microbes.