Science in Popular Culture: A Reference Guide - Hardcover

A. Bowdoin Van Riper

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0313318220 ISBN 13: 9780313318221

Publisher: Greenwood (UK), 2002

Synopsis

Spaceships travel through time at lightspeed, piloted by human clones and talking animals. Serious injuries are healed with the wave of a medical gizmo. The media makes it all look easy. Can scientists hope to accomplish such amazing feats in the real world, or are they merely flights of fancy? This book is a fun look at what can, and can't, be achieved with current technology in today's laboratory experiments.

Fans of the Jetsons, Star Trek, and Star Wars will learn the facts behind the fiction through entires that describe the scientific inventions and procedures on the screen, and how they differ from the reality. Van Riper shows us who innovators like Charles Darwin, Benjamin Franklin, and Isaac Newton really were before they were mythologized. He discusses how animals such as chimpanzees, dolphins, and elephants are portrayed in books and films, and what we really know about animal intelligence. This book lifts the curtain on science fiction, revealing how and where scientific laws have been discarded for the sake of a good plot.

About this title

About the Author

A. Bowdoin Van Riper is a historian who specializes in depictions of science and technology in popular culture. He is Web Coordinator for the Center for the Study of Film and History and an archivist for the Martha's Vineyard Museum. Van Riper's publications include Imagining Flight: Aviation in Popular Culture (2003), A Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists and Inventors in American Film and Television (2011).

ROBERT VAN RIPER is a retired senior member of the staff at the Financial Accounting Standards Board, 1973-1991. Prior to that, he was senior vice president of N.W. Ayer, Inc. He is the author of many articles in business and professional journals and two novels.

Edition details

• Publisher: Greenwood (UK)
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0313318220
• ISBN 13: 9780313318221
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336