This post includes minor spoilers for the film Memento (2000) When it comes to reviewing films about characters with memory disorders, medical practitioners and neuroscientists are difficult to please. Entertainment films that deal with the topic of memory loss (amnesia) and other memory problems caused by neurological damage are routinely reviewed in medical and scientific journals including Advances in Clinical Neuroscience… Read more →
Tag: science communication
Playing God: Film Series Round-up
The Science and Entertainment Lab’s inaugural film series ‘Playing God: Science and Religion on Screen’ ran from March to May 2015. We screened six films with introductions by a Bishop, a theologian, film scholars, a filmmaker, and historians of science. Our wonderful venue, the International Anthony Burgess Foundation (IABF), was busy at every screening. The post-screening discussions were vibrant and… Read more →
Creativity and Collaboration across the Arts/Science Divide
I recently presented a talk at a University of Manchester event trying to bridge the (supposed) gap between the arts and sciences. The talk was given in the Pecha Kucha format which requires the presenter to use 20 slides and to spend exactly 20 seconds on each slide. I thought it would be interesting to post this presentation on our… Read more →
Rise of the Women?: Screening Female Scientists
One of my major issues with the most recent addition to the Planet of the Apes franchise, Dawn of the Planets of the Apes (Reeves, 2014), were the roles available to women – both human and ape. In my blog on the film I explored some of my thoughts on it and I noted that (the very few) female characters were… Read more →
The Science Sleuths: Fighting Crime with ‘Science’ in Golden Era Comics
Jill Trent first appeared in issue #6 of the pulp comic The Fighting Yank published by Nedor Comics. The Fighting Yank was a patriotic Second World War series launched in 1941 and was about ‘America’s Bravest Defender’ – Nedor’s pulpy equivalent to the Shield and Captain America. Jill Trent is a rather unusual character for the era; a scholarly female scientist who used her… Read more →