Movies
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'The Ball Method' trailer introduces Alice Ball, chemist who discovered treatment for leprosy
In 1915, Alice Ball, a recent graduate from the College of Hawaii with a master's in Chemistry, started work on investigating the chemical properties of chaulmoogra oil. This extract, derived from the seeds of the chaulmoogra tree, was first used to treat leprosy in China over six hundred years ago but the substance was too...
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'Spider-Man: Far from Home' and Physics of the MCU Multiverse
In a scene from Spider-Man: Far from Home, first seen on Ellen, Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Tom Holland) meets Quentin Beck/Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) and discovers the new superhero is not from his universe but from a parallel Earth. Beck explains, “There are multiple realities, Peter. This is Earth, dimension 616. I am from Earth-833. We share identical...
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New ways scientists can help put science back into popular culture
How often do you, outside the requirements of an assignment, ponder things like the workings of a distant star, the innards of your phone camera, or the number and layout of petals on a flower? Maybe a little bit, maybe never. Too often, people regard science as sitting outside the general culture: A specialized, difficult...
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The Force of biology is strong in 'Star Wars'
Star Wars: The Last Jedi follows the journey of Rey as the heroine discovers and learns about the Force, just as her teacher Luke Skywalker and his father Anakin did in the Galactic Rebellion and Clone Wars (more on this later). This raises an obvious question: What is the Force and where does it come...
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What the robots of 'Star Wars' tell us about automation, and the future of human work
Millions of fans all over the world are eagerly anticipating this week’s release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the eighth in the series. At last we will get some answers to questions that have been vexing us since 2015’s The Force Awakens. Throughout the franchise, the core characters have been accompanied by a number...
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Star Wars' last Jedi may use the Force of quantum science
As Star Wars: The Last Jedi opens in theatres and its heroine Rey seeks to learn the ways of the Force from an aged and isolated Luke Skywalker, it raises some obvious and ongoing questions: Is there anything in science — particularly in quantum physics — that resembles the Force? Can objects be manipulated instantaneously...
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VX Nerve Agent and The Science Of 'The Rock'
On February 13, 2017, Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was murdered at a Kuala Lumpur airport with VX nerve agent, a particularly terrible chemical weapon. In an assassination plot that is stranger than fiction, the deadly chemical agent was delivered as a binary compound. Two women, allegedly believing they were...
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Staying warm with a box of radiation on 'The Martian'
In the 2015 science fiction film, The Martian, NASA astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) finds himself stranded on Mars after being struck by debris during a forced evacuation. Left for dead, the intrepid astronaut must not only survive on the barren planet, he needs to find a way home. Mark must use every resource at...
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Deciphering the Science and Linguistics of 'Arrival'
Communication is one of the messiest things we humans do on a daily basis. We translate the thoughts inside our head into words that another person (hopefully) can understand. Assuming this other person shares a common language and culture, this should be easy (most of the time). But even when we do share a common...
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The Three Most Dangerous Film Shoots of All Time (And What Hollywood Can Learn from Them)
To create cinematic action which is both believable and interesting, film producers often spend millions, but sometimes it is the actors that pay the real price for shooting a scene. Because of this, it is not uncommon for a big-budget blockbuster to be put behind schedule because of an injured lead actor. And while the...
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Fact-checking Workplace Safety in Hollywood and Beyond
The world of television and film has made leaps and bounds in terms of more realistic fictional universes. Despite this, workplace safety is still seen as either a complete joke or is scarcely mentioned. Fictional employees are constantly being asked to do things, or end up doing things, that completely defy health and safety regulation....
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An Interview With A Particle Physicist On What It Takes To Become A Ghostbuster
Ghostbusters is set to hit theaters in just over a month, and while the film might be fiction, it has some basis in actual science. We've already looked at why the Ghostbusters reboot is important and the real-world physics behind the Proton Pack. This time, I am interviewing the MIT particle physicist, Lindley Winslow, whose...
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An Interview with the Real Scientist who Redesigned the Ghostbusters Proton Pack
In my last article, I looked at the science behind the Ghostbusters' Proton Pack. The Proton Pack is a miniature particle accelerator and the design incorporates technology and some real-world physics. Many of the movie's designs and props seen in the Ghostbuster's reboot was the work of experimental particle physicists, James Maxwell and I had the...
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Is Star Trek's Famous Transporter Really a Death Machine?
Star Trek's transporter is about every fan's dream method of travel. Step onto the platform and you are instantaneously disintegrated while the information from every single atom in your body measured. The energy from being disintegrated is beamed into space and the information gained is used to reassemble you. Need to get to Mars in...
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The Science of The Ghostbuster's Upgraded Proton Pack
The Ghostbusters trailer contains an Easter egg hidden in the whiteboard filled with physics equations. This Easter egg goes by quickly but if you pause at just the right moment, you will see one "equation" on top is a URL that spells paranormalstudieslab.com. Fans will recognize this is a nod to the original movie as...
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The New Ghostbusters Are Women And Why It Matters
The latest trailer to the new Ghostbusters came out last week and fan response has been resoundingly negative. Within hours of release, the trailer had garnered twice as many dislikes to likes on YouTube. While vitriol from fans is expected, the 1984 movie is a classic, so the almost 1-to-2 like to dislike ratio is...
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Fan Theory on How Fantastic Beast's Newt Scamander Kept His Wand
The Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them trailer brings fans back to the world of Harry Potter, and reveals a somewhat startling secret regarding everyone's beloved Hufflepuff and magizoology expert. A voiceover by Percival Graves (Colin Farrell) reveals that Newton Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) was expelled from Hogwarts for endangering a muggle! But how can...
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The Physics of the Death Stars and Starkiller Base in 'Star Wars'
The Star Wars films feature not one but three battle stations capable of destroying planets. In "A New Hope," the DS-1 Orbital Battle Station employed a super laser powered by a hypermatter reactor to destroy Alderaan. Following the "Battle of Yavin," the Empire returned with the Death Star II, an even more formidable weapons platform...
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Did Rose murder Jack in the Titanic drowning scene?
Whether it is because people are trying to spoil one of the greatest romantic movies, or they are just trying to convince themselves that Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) was really supposed to die, the debate about the scene when Rose (Kate Winslet) drops Jack into the sea is still going on. The question everyone is asking...
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Is the science presented in Contagion relevant and accurate?
Contagion is one of the few Hollywood films to employ on, the whole, highly credible science. As a movie "Contagion" more than hits home and, in my view, the most frightening aspect is the deliberate feel of the mundane and ordinary. It is skillfully brought to the forefront of the proceedings by its director Steven...
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