We took some time off from corrupting classic(ish) films with science, but we came back strong this past Friday with #casLABlanca – a noble effort to science-fy the 1942 classic Casablanca. Despite the risk this posed, I was pleased with the results (measured by my lack of productivity on Friday), but I amuse easily.
You can read the Storify of #casLABlanca, or even add your own “scinematic” efforts to the hashtag.
The Scinema Veritas ouevre includes:
#ConanthePostDoc (Conan the Barbarian)
H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds (1898)
During the new wave of future fiction of the last decades of the 19th century, stories of catastrophic future wars were especially popular. The trend began in 1871 with George Chesney’s “The Battle of Dorking”, a story about a surprise invasion of England by something that sounds like the Prussian military. Writers continued to present increasingly elaborate visions of ever more destructive weaponry right up through the outbreak of World War I. And then there was H.G. Wells, who in 1898 took this popular and overworked late-Victorian genre and completely transformed it into modern science fiction with the classic story of alien invasion.
Swapping Martians with Germans isn’t the only feature that makes The War of the Worlds so different from what came before. Most writers were largely interested with the military and geopolitical aspects of future war, but Wells was interested in the civilians. In fact, War of the Worlds isn’t really about the Martians or their advanced technology; it’s about our cosmic insignificance, and how we react when the security of civilization is demolished. Continue reading “Apocalypse 1898: The Victorian Alien Invasion”
This week, they’re looking at the environmental impacts of foods we eat, and others that we should. They’ll speak to Daniella Martin, host of the insect cooking/travel show “Girl Meets Bug,” about her book “Edible: An Adventure into the World of Eating Insects and the Last Great Hope to Save the Planet.” And they’ll talk about the environmental effects of salmon farming with Peter Bridson, Aquaculture Research Manager for the Seafood Watch program at the Monterey Bay Aquarium (which has appeared in Eva Amsen’s Have Science Will Travel series).
In the beginning, there was Neil Hall’s tone deaf “Kardashian Index”. Then there was Science Magazine’s list of 50 Twitter science superstars. Combined they painted a pretty clear picture that being active on social media was only considered a desirable characteristic in a thin slice of the population – you know, white dudes.
Hall did so by mocking young scientists who are active and effective on social media. Science Magazine did so by featuring very few women or people of color in their list.
PZ Myers, who did make Science Magazine’s list, takes them, particularly the editors, to task:
Isn’t it weird how invisible people suddenly become apparent if you just look for them?
In doing so, PZ reminded me of a Blues Brothers themed piece I wrote a few years ago for Nature’s Soapbox Science about finding audiences where they are on social media. Rather than fighting over the niche audience of science fans, we need to be convincing people to be science fans – much like Jake and Elwood convinced people to like the Blues. Continue reading “Are you a Twitter Science Superstar?”
Neal Stephenson and Arizona State University want scientists and engineers to think bigger – with science fiction. Therefore, they’ve created Project Hieroglyph: “If we want to create a better future, we need to start with better dreams.”
Some of those dreams are laid out in a new anthology of stories and essays, many of which you can now read online. The book features a skeptical foreword by Lawrence Krauss, and a bullish preface by Neal Stephenson. Some comments should be made about Stephenson’s claims regarding the relationship between science and science fiction, but those are for another day. In the mean time, check out the project, it’s well worth your time.
The Finch and Pea 