Title: RE: paleonet Bible Belt creationists threaten IMAX
film i
Folks -- I saw the IMAX "Aliens of the Deep"
this weekend. Visually a real treat. The astonishing pictures of the
black smokers and the biomass surrounding them is not to be missed. I
would have liked more science, such as discussions of the different
organisms shown, but the movie is aimed at a younger
audience. The few statements about evolution must have really
irritated some creationist audiences! Our California audience
didn't seemed to be bothered. I would recommend seeing it, if for no
other reason than to show IMAX that there is an audience for
science on the wide screen.
I believe that what is needed is more media that explores the
culture of the scientific community to the rest of the lay public.
I am the only member of my extended family to go into academic
science. Furthermore, most of my good friends are not
academic scientists because I was not a science major as an undergrad
and did not go to grad school until I was in my mid 20s. I am
therefore perhaps more conscious than some of how foreign the world of
academic science seems to the rest of the public. Let's face it,
even scientists employed by corporations, governments or self-employed
live by different rules and do not really understand the culture that
conducts and produces basic research results.
The image of academic culture derived from drama, film and the
media is based on work like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf,
myriad Cold War science fiction films, Indiana Jones,
Jurassic Park, the character of Ross in Friends, and Dennis
Quaid's character in The Day After Tomorrow. Many of the
scientist characters are rather absurdly twisted or equally
over-Romanticized. More importantly, science culture is never
really fully represented, so the public remains in the dark about the
community that is producing (handing down) research results that at
times threaten religious values or are simply confusing.
An IMAX film shows about as much about how science is conducted
as a professional baseball game shows about the business of
professional sports. As such, it is fine for what it does, but
it is far from the full picture.
Bill
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William P. Chaisson
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of Rochester
Rochester, NY 14627
607-387-3892