Science at the Cinema

For some reason, I’ve been thoroughly exhausted all week, and being out late last night for a concert hasn’t helped any. Thus, you’re not going to get much in the way of substantive blogging from me today.

I did want to note a weird example of synchronicity in the physics-related blogosphere, though, as both Clifford Johnson and Jennifer Ouellette have recent posts in praise of B movies. Clifford sings the praises of Jurassic Park, particularly:

The fact that every time I am almost in tears when the scientists -not the annoying one played by Jeff Goldblum- see the dinosaurs for the first time. They are immediately enchanted as human beings and as scientists, and are themselves almost in tears seeing the things they’ve been studying and theorising about all their careers walking in front of them…. Can you imagine that? Even with silly Holywood-scientist behaviour elsewhere in the script, and the silly biology holding up some of the plot, that early scene gets it so right – understands the scientists feelings so well, that the rest does not matter.

Jennifer, in turn, holds up Tremors as an example of good science in action:

Perhaps it was due to low blood sugar or lack of oxygen, but while Jen-Luc Piquant was off pretending to “spot” for well-muscled gym rats, I found myself ruminating on how this low-budget sleeper hit of a monster movie could be deployed as a useful pedagogical tool for science education and outreach. Not because it co-stars Kevin Bacon — a fact that could easily be used to segue into a discussion of small world networks and the six degrees of separation phenomenon — or because it could spark an interesting debate on the underlying biology of the featured monsters. Tremors provides something even more fundamental to fostering public understanding of science: the perfect template for discussing the scientific method, precisely because it depicts that method put into not-quite-real world action.

Maybe it’s the sleep deprivation talking, but they’re both interesting reads.