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Science of TRON

Listen to audio from the "Science of TRON" panel, featuring director Joe Kosinski, producer Sean Bailey, and science consultants Sean Carroll & John Dick. Learn More

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Darwin Takes Center Stage

Posted by The Exchange on 09/10/2009 | 0 comments

Is there a scientist in history more misunderstood in modern times than Charles Darwin? His seminal work, The Origin of Species, revolutionized the biological sciences and led to a tension between science and religion that still exists today. The story is ripe for the biopic treatment, and director Jon Amiel obliges with Creation, debuting tomorrow at the Toronto International Film Festival.

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"District 9" Takes a Lesson From Tesla

Posted by The Exchange on 09/08/2009 | 0 comments

Director Neill Blomkamp's sci-fi film, District 9, is getting rave reviews for its gritty, hard-edged depiction of a futuristic world where stranded aliens are being evicted from one dismal slum and forced to move to another -- when all they really want is to get the mother ship back up and running so they can return home. Among the the more useful alien technologies is an "energy weapon" based on a Tesla coil.

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Claw of Newt

Posted by The Exchange on 09/03/2009 | 0 comments

One of the more compelling X-Men is Logan, a.k.a., Wolverine -- so much a fan favorite that he merited his own "origins" story earlier this year with Wolverine.

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Saving a Bit of History

Posted by The Exchange on 09/02/2009 | 0 comments

Los Angeles has plenty of landmarks: the Capitol Records building, Graumann's Chinese Theater, and of course, the famous Hollywood sign. But as a wildfire raged through the national forest over the last few days, the flames threatened a lesser known bit of local history: the Mount Wilson Observatory.

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The Science of Special Effects

Posted by The Exchange on 08/30/2009 | 0 comments

During our ramblings around YouTube, we came across this marvelous compendium showcasing the evolution of special effects in film since 1900, beginning with The Enchanted Drawing, and ending -- of course -- with the amazing anti-aging Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Who knows what the visual effects wizards will come up tomorrow?

 

 

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All the Small Things

Posted by The Exchange on 08/27/2009 | 0 comments

Science, entertainment and art converge in the work of Willard Wigan, a British artist who creates sculptures so tiny, they fit inside the eye of a needle, or on the head of a pin. In fact, you can't even see the sculptures without looking through a microscope.

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Sparkle and Glow

Posted by The Exchange on 08/25/2009 | 0 comments

Fans of Stephanie Meyers' Twilight series -- now coming to a silver screen near you - love the fact that her vampires "sparkle" in sunlight rather than burn up, a la Dracula. It's an intriguing departure from classical vampire lore, and far be it from us to argue with artistic license. But you don't have to be a broody vampire to have a bit of a glow about you.

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Of Adam and Asperger's

Posted by The Exchange on 08/20/2009 | 0 comments

Among the standouts at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year was a film by writer/director Max Mayer called Adam, which was honored with the Alfred P. Sloan Prize for outstanding feature film focusing on science and technology.

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Talking Incentives

Posted by The Exchange on 08/19/2009 | 0 comments

So, it's simply not true that scientists lack communication skills in any absolute sense. Successful scientists, by and large, have excellent communication skills. The problem is that those skills have been developed for communication to a very specific audience: other scientists in the same field. The communication strategies that are most effective for scientists talking to other scientists are often not effective when communicating to the general public.

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For All Time

Posted by The Exchange on 08/14/2009 | 0 comments

The film adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger's bestselling novel, The Time Traveler's Wife, hits theaters this weekend. For those unfamiliar with the premise, it concerns a Chicago librarian named Harry (Eric Bana) who suffers from a rare genetic disorder that causes him to live on a constantly shifting timeline, shuttling back and forth between past, present and future with no control over this unusual quirk.

This understandably throws a wrench into his relationship with Clare (Rachel McAdams), who must cope with his sudden disappearances and re-appearances as best she can over the course of their marriage.

Let's leave aside the fact that no genetic disorder could possibly cause this kind of anomaly in the space-time continuum. We're talking about fantasy, after all, which demands a certain willing suspension of disbelief.

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