David A. Kirby, University of Manchester
Thursday, 13 October 2016 at 15:00 in the Large Operon, EMBL Heidelberg
David A. Kirby, University of Manchester
Lab Coats in Hollywood: Scientists' Impact on Cinema, Cinema's Influence on Science
Abstract
We are now in a golden age for science in popular culture. Academy Award winning films such as Gravity and The Theory of Everything, and television ratings titans like The Big Bang Theory have proven that science–based popular cultural products can be both critically acclaimed and financially successful. But, the scientific community has long standing concerns about popular culture’s impact on public attitudes towards science. In fact, there is significant empirical evidence showing that popular cultural products like movies can have a powerful influence on public perceptions of science. Anxiety over Hollywood science has led many scientists to become consultants for movie productions in order to influence how stories about science are told through this medium. In fact, many high profile scientific organizations including the US National Academy of Sciences and the Wellcome Trust in the UK have embraced movies as legitimate vehicles for science communication by developing initiatives to facilitate scientific involvement in the production of films. In this talk I will elaborate on the backstage role scientific experts play in negotiating information transfer between the scientific community and the entertainment community. I will also discuss the constraints filmmakers face when attempting to incorporate science into their film texts. In addition, I will explore the ways that movies made with the help of scientists have influenced science itself including how movies promote research agendas, stimulate technological development, and impact the cultural meanings of science.
Biography
David A. Kirby was an evolutionary geneticist whose work appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences before leaving bench science to become Senior Lecturer in Science Communication Studies at the University of Manchester. His experiences as a member of the scientific community have informed his internationally recognized studies into the interactions between science, media, and cultural meanings. Several of his publications address the relationship between cinema, genetics, biotechnology and cultural meanings. He has also studied how media professionals utilize, negotiate and transform science in order to tell stories about science in movies and on television. His book Lab Coats in Hollywood: Science, Scientists and Cinema examines collaborations between scientists and the entertainment industry in the production of movies and demonstrates how these fictional texts affect real world science and technology. Since its release, the book has received positive reviews in over 40 media outlets and scholarly journals including Nature, Science, Film Comment, Times Literary Supplement, Times Higher Education, and BBC Focus Magazine. The book was named one of Physics World magazine’s top 10 best popular-physics books of 2011. He recently received an Investigator Award from the Wellcome Trust to analyse the interactions among the biosciences, religion and entertainment media. He is currently writing a book titled Indecent Science: Religion, Science and Movie Censorship which will explorehow movies served as a battleground over science’s role in influencing morality.