Science and Cinema

Professor gets two thumbs up for a new take on biology

At the movies, gigantic ants take over Earth, a man becomes a fly, dinosaurs grow from fossilized DNA and humans clone themselves. Just how much of these provocative ideas do we take seriously? Ask biology professor Christopher Rose, who presents "Biology in the Movies" to teach students to separate science fact from science fiction.

Most flicks fail to present real science, Rose says, and people often leave the theater misled about the hows and whys of scientific research and the realm of the scienti-fically possible.

"If people digest the science they see in the movies and take that as the watered-down version of the real thing, they're always going to be misinformed," Rose says.

An adequate and accurate understanding of science is crucial, the professor insists, because scientific research has such fundamental and far-reaching implications. If we ignore science, the result is an expert few left to make critical decisions without informed input from the rest of society.

Interestingly, science fiction is often a gauge of the public's understanding of science, says Rose, who points to the writing of Frankenstein in the early 1800s, when scientists were exploring the notion of bringing dead tissue spontaneously to life using electricity.

Rose considers movies a good starting point for teaching scientific concepts that a few films do successfully ex-plore. Then it's a matter of dissecting the films to distinguish what's realistic and what's entertainment. Designed for non-science majors, Rose's course covers films that treat topics like evolution, human origins, human cloning, transgenic animals and artificial intelligence. Students watch and discuss movies like Inherit the Wind, Jurassic Park, The Boys From Brazil, and both the 1958 and 1986 versions of The Fly and then study related scientific research and concepts.

"In most of those movies the science has to go wrong ... which produces the thrill aspect of it," he says. The biology professor takes up after the thrill, where the movies leave off. "I point out all the issues that are glossed over,'' Rose says.

In Jurassic Park, for instance, scientists produce dinosaurs from DNA they extracted from dinosaur blood found in fossilized mosquitoes. It's possible to extract the DNA from a fossil, he ex-plains, but only in fragments and only through a complex procedure. "It would be very difficult, and probably impossible, to assemble the fragments into complete chromosomes," Rose explains. "It would be equally difficult to use those chromosomes to make an embryo develop into a dinosaur."

That was food for thought for senior Jason Daube. "You believe it at the time; whereas, if you really get into the biology of it, it's near impossible. I know it's far-fetched,'' he says.

Rose uses the two film versions of The Fly to challenge students to pick out the valid science from an implausible plot: A scientist turns into a fly when cells (1958 original) or genes (1986 remake) of man and fly are accidentally recombined. The result is impossible because the organ systems of humans and in-sects are incompatible, Rose explains. But the movie has scientific value because it introduces the notion of mixing cells or genes to produce new organisms, which has been done successfully in laboratories. The cells of two similar animals, a sheep and a goat, were combined in the 1980s to produce what became known as a "geep,'' an animal with the fur and looks of the original animals.

A biologist and longtime movie buff, Rose applauds films that effectively explore - and explain (a rare occurrence) - scientific ideas. One of them is The Boys from Brazil, a 1978 film about a fictitious first human cloning project in which frozen tissue from the body of Adolf Hitler is used to create a new race of Hitlers. A scientist in the movie actually explains the process of transplanting the DNA of the deceased Hitler into an embryo. After showing the film, Rose delves into lessons on cloning and discussions on the ethics of cloning.

Another good example of a film that deals well with science is 1997's Gattaca, which explores the processes of genetic screening and in vitro fertilization. The futuristic movie portrays a genetically imperfect protagonist trying to succeed in a society dominated by humans genetically screened to be biologically superior. Using the film as a springboard, Rose presents the realities of gene manipulation to produce desirable human traits like high intelligence and musical ability and the impossibility of screening out all undesired human traits.

While the films have "blatantly unrealistic'' parts, junior Kevin Davenport says it wasn't always easy separating what was factual from what wasn't. "Trying to find out what was real, what was possible, what really could happen, that was fun,'' he says.

"Before, I wouldn't think about or question if it was possible to do what they attempted [in a movie].''

Davenport says Biology in the Movies wasn't the sit-back-and-relax course its title might convey. "If you tried to engage, it was definitely a challenging course,'' he says.

While Rose teaches students to view science fiction with a critical eye, he doesn't discourage them from a good night at the movies. "Certainly, I don't want to shoot down fantasy as a source of plot lines,'' he says.

No problem. A longtime fan of sci-fi flicks, Davenport says the course won't stop him from indulging in a cinematic thrill that doesn't measure up to scientific standards.

"They're definitely fun movies,'' he says.

By Alayna Demartini