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Scienceblogger question is asking the following:
What movie do you think does something admirable (though not necessarily accurate) regarding science? Bonus points for answering whether the chosen movie is any good generally....
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Star Wars yet, so I'm going to pipe up for Han Solo et al. The first one in 1977, in particular, was a big one for me, and although it didn't necessarily reflect my yearning for science (and certainly doesn't uniformly follow robust scientific critique), I can't imagine it not having that effect on the countless other techno savy folk out there.
In fact, I have my own small Star Wars tradition that I uphold in every class I've ever taught. This is one where Chewbacca always makes some sort of appearance in the course content. For instance:
1. In my molecular biology graduate course, Chewbacca makes an appearance as a metaphor representing a cosmid vector (as compared to an ewok representing a plasmid vector, and King Kong as the artificial chromosome vector).
2. In an Immunology course I use to teach, Chewbacca made an appearance in discussing Flourescent Activated Cell Sorting, via the use of anti-iconic status antibodies, and anti-hair antibodies. Chewbacca's profile was compared to other icons like Homer Simpson, etc.
3. In an advanced transgenic mouse (professional development) workshop... well, that should be obvious.
And so on.
Anyway, check this out. The entire Star Wars IV movie in less than 200K.
Comments
Very cool (Re: Starwars IV in less than 200k)
Have you seen, Starwars Asciimation?
http://www.asciimation.co.nz/
Posted by: apalazzo | August 4, 2006 1:02 PM
Cool animation! I don't own any Princess Leia costumes (should I get one and put photos on my site?) but have friends who do, and I will pass the movie on. Like a lot of less-than-accurate movies, Star Wars inspired a lot of people to think about space, or take arms against overwhelming odds.
Posted by: Louise | August 4, 2006 1:18 PM
That Starwars Asciimation piece is quite the undertaking. I wonder where people get the time to do that sort of thing (I muse as I comment about star wars and the like). As well as the astromony/cosmology angle (as Louise brings up), I find there a lot of devotees in the engineering set as well (robots, machines, etc).
Posted by: David Ng | August 4, 2006 1:27 PM
Don't forget Star Wars in 30 seconds, re-enacted by bunnies.
Posted by: Blake Stacey | August 4, 2006 1:37 PM
This too is hilarious. Darth Vader on being a Smart*ss.
Posted by: David Ng | August 5, 2006 11:30 AM