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 →
***Warning: Post contains spoilers for the films Avatar (2009) and Transcendence (2014)*** Death is a staple of human existence and it should come as no surprise that throughout history, human communities have developed narratives and practices to cope with death and imagine and enact a possible afterlife. Today, one arena where such narratives are acted out is popular culture and… Read more →
Do vampire narratives become science fiction when vampirism is created or/and ‘cured’ by science? Whether benevolent, malicious, or uncontrolled, science is rivalling if not, in some cases, entirely replacing the supernatural as the most prevalent component of recent vampire narratives. Where once there was a vampire slayer and her pointy stick there are now scientists armed with vaccines and syringes. Read more →
A while ago I found a journal article entitled Neural Decoding of Visual Imagery During Sleep. Intrigued by the title, I took a closer look and learned how a team of neuroscientists led by Yukiyasu Kamitani, based at a research lab in Kyoto, used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology, more commonly referred as a ‘brain scanner’, to record human… Read more →
**Contains minor spoilers** By 2011 I had already spent five years of postgraduate study researching the history and cultural interpretations of Planet of the Apes. I was very nervous about seeing Rise of the Planet of the Apes; it was released just a few weeks before I submitted my PhD and I knew I would have to make at least… Read more →
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