Author Topic: Science in movies  (Read 3463 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline chief-david

  • Educational Weather
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 2845
  • Space Academy for Educators
    • Benilde-St. Margaret's Weather
Science in movies
« on: February 24, 2010, 10:15:18 PM »
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/02/22/movie.tv.science/index.html?hpt=Sbin

San Diego, California (CNN) -- Television shows and movies may take you to worlds far away, but their makers, aware of viewers' need for believability, say they consult scientists to make things more real.

"Audiences now demand that, or they hunger for it," Academy-Award winning director and producer Ron Howard said at this weekend's meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. "They want it to ring true whenever possible."

Scientists and entertainment professionals are finding each other through recent initiatives.

Howard promoted one called the Creative Science Studio, a new partnership between the National Science Foundation and the University of California School of Cinematic Arts.

Another is the Science and Entertainment Exchange, a National Academy of Sciences program, which gives entertainment professionals access to top scientists.

Howard's film "Angels and Demons" features the world's largest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider. Scientists helped with an opening sequence, designing graphics and making it generally more plausible, Howard told scientists and journalists at the meeting.

"I think Hollywood's attitude will be, if we can make it more realistic without spoiling the story and without it costing too much more money, we will do it, but there are always those restraints," said Sidney Perkowitz, Emory University physicist and author of "Hollywood Science."

Given that worldwide box office sales for "The Day After Tomorrow" eclipsed sales for the global warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" by nearly $500 million, science-fiction films play a powerful role in reaching large numbers of people and spreading awareness of issues such as climate change, Perkowitz said.

"Avatar" and "District 9," both current Oscar nominees, reflect real issues of science and society, such as genetic engineering, he said.

"Gattaca," a 1997 futuristic thriller dealing with the effects of putting too much faith in the knowledge of humans' DNA, is a good example of science in film, Perkowitz said.

The 2003 disaster movie "The Core," on the other hand, is full of inaccuracies, such as the Earth's "electromagnetic" field (it's magnetic) and faulty details about the inner structure of the planet, he said.

"That film seems to me to be contemptuous of science," Perkowitz said. "Ignorance is excusable. Contempt is not excusable."

Perkowitz and other experts said they allow for one or two suspensions of disbelief -- faster-than-light travel, for instance -- before they start critiquing based on established science.

The hit TV show "Lost" is full of mystery and fantasy but is actually logical in its portrayal of time travel in the first five seasons, said Sean Carroll, a physicist at California Institute of Technology and author of "From Eternity to Now."

Although there is no time machine -- lights flash, and the characters go back decades -- it plausibly assumes that the past must stay intact and cannot be changed by the time travelers, he said.

"I think that that is a very respectable way to think about time travel; that is what it would have to be like," said Carroll, who is also a guest on a "Lost" Season 5 DVD extra.

Mistakes in movies can be teachable moments, Perkowitz said.

The movie "Starship Troopers," featuring 10-foot tall bugs, fails the test of logic for Perkowitz but serves an important lesson.

He did the math and realized that if the bugs on which the giant creatures were modeled -- about an inch long and one ounce in weight -- were scaled up, they would weigh about 108,000 pounds.

"The science was wrong," he said. "Evolution would not allow this to happen."

Entertainment writers say they do sometimes knowingly violate reality.



You can't phase me-I teach Middle School.
It's not you-It's WU.

Offline Downlinerz2

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 2937
Re: Science in movies
« Reply #1 on: February 24, 2010, 10:22:22 PM »
   Very interesting indeed.  I would hope they want the movies to be as accurrate as possible as far as science is concerned.  I will have to see it to believe it.  Now I hope they will try to be more accurate in movies relating to history :roll:
« Last Edit: February 24, 2010, 10:25:56 PM by Downlinerz2 »

Offline chief-david

  • Educational Weather
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 2845
  • Space Academy for Educators
    • Benilde-St. Margaret's Weather
Re: Science in movies
« Reply #2 on: February 24, 2010, 10:36:11 PM »
We watch a few movies in class and discuss what is real/possible and what is not.  Twister is a so-so.  Dante's Peak-ok.  Never will watch "Day after Tomorrow" I would rather stick to Journey to the Center of the Earth- v1959.  I like when Pat Boone sings.
Don't get me started on 10.5 from NBC or The Core.



You can't phase me-I teach Middle School.
It's not you-It's WU.

Offline Downlinerz2

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 2937
Re: Science in movies
« Reply #3 on: February 24, 2010, 11:42:20 PM »
   Cool class.  I would enjoy that.  I agree 100% on the movies.  I will have to see if there is a class like that near here.

Offline mackbig

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 4128
    • Mackie's Main Street, Unionville, ON Canada Weather
Re: Science in movies
« Reply #4 on: February 25, 2010, 06:55:19 AM »
Dont forget Category 6, and Category 7 from CBS.....  and last years NBC classic "The Storm"

Andrew

Don't get me started on 10.5 from NBC or The Core.

Andrew - Davis VP2+ 6163, serial weatherlink, wireless anemometer, running Weather Display.  Boltek PCI Stormtracker, Astrogenic Nexstorm, Strikestar - UNI, CWOP CW8618, GrLevel3, (Station 2 OS WMR968, VWS 13.01p09), Windows 7-64

Offline chief-david

  • Educational Weather
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 2845
  • Space Academy for Educators
    • Benilde-St. Margaret's Weather
Re: Science in movies
« Reply #5 on: February 25, 2010, 11:57:19 AM »
I skipped those.  

Did anyone see Ice Tornado?



You can't phase me-I teach Middle School.
It's not you-It's WU.

Offline mackbig

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 4128
    • Mackie's Main Street, Unionville, ON Canada Weather
Re: Science in movies
« Reply #6 on: February 25, 2010, 12:23:58 PM »
Wish I had.  If PVR's had never been invented, I probably would not have made it through 2 or 3 commercial breaks......


I skipped those.  

Andrew - Davis VP2+ 6163, serial weatherlink, wireless anemometer, running Weather Display.  Boltek PCI Stormtracker, Astrogenic Nexstorm, Strikestar - UNI, CWOP CW8618, GrLevel3, (Station 2 OS WMR968, VWS 13.01p09), Windows 7-64

Offline Cienega32

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 2635
    • East Mesa Weather
Re: Science in movies
« Reply #7 on: March 14, 2010, 12:20:44 PM »
There's nothing like those 1950s B-movies. The chills, the horrors, the constant mutters of "HUH?"

More recently, I remember when the the Travolta-Cage flick "Face-Off" came out. A friend said he didn't care for it because the premise was too implausible...   

Pat ~ Davis VP2 6153-Weatherlink-Weather Display-StartWatch-VirtualVP-Win7 Pro-64bit
www.LasCruces-Weather.com   www.EastMesaWeather.com