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convey how planetary exploration, Liquid ethane fills lakes it from Earth nearly every night, new and science in general, progresses as on the surface of Titan, discoveries are regular. It is inevitable a human enterprise. Lorenz commu- Saturn’s largest moon. that any book on Titan is a little out- nicates what it is like to be a scientist of-date before it is released, but this AP PHOTO/NASA AP PHOTO/NASA involved with a current space mission, reflects the vitality of the research. working with diverse colleagues and We won’t be able to book a ticket following your curiosity to make new to Titan in the next few decades, discoveries. but further robotic spacecraft will Advances may come serendipi- be sent to explore. A Titan orbiter tously, but they are usually hard-won could map the surface, observe the following years of intense work, car- seasonal weather patterns and study ried out with the risk of failure and the subsurface ocean. Balloon-borne research dead-ends. Some obstacles to detectors could examine the atmos- progress are simple to overcome. For phere and surface up close. And a example, Lorenz recounts how, while new mission will add detail to our working alone at night at an observa- guidebook to Titan. Hopefully, tory, he was once held back by a crucial piece Huygens probe after its launch. It required a someone working on that mission will write of equipment that lay behind a locked stor- major effort to retarget and replan nearly the an insider’s account, like Titan Unveiled, to age-room door. His eventual solution was to entire mission, involving hundreds of people tell us how it all happened. ■ remove the door’s hinges. Other challenges are and thousands of hours of work. Henry Roe is an astronomer at Lowell Observatory, greater, such as the discovery of an engineer- With the Cassini mission flying past Titan 1400 West Mars Hill Road, Flagstaff, ing problem with the radio transmitter on the every few weeks and astronomers observing Arizona 86001, USA.

before the Second World War was Secrets How science hit the small screen of Nature (1922–33), produced by British Instructional Films. Its successor was Secrets of Films of Fact they stimulated demand for nature-based Life (1934–50). Celebrated cameraman Percy Science Museum, London films. Producer Charles Urban exploited Smith, a clerk at the UK government’s Depart- From 29 May to 2 November 2008. this commercial potential in a series of photo- ment of Education, worked on both series. He Films of Fact: A History of Science in micrography films called ‘The Unseen World: specialized in filming through microscopes Documentary Films and Television Revealing Nature’s Closest Secrets by Means of or glass aquaria in his London greenhouse, by Timothy Boon the Urban–Duncan Micro-Bioscope’, which using a timing device he made from a cuckoo Wallflower Press: 2008. 224 pp. included The Circulation of the Protoplasm of clock to record plant growth with time-lapse £45.00 (hbk), £16.99 (pbk) the Canadian Waterweed (1903). Nature series photography. quickly became established as a popular genre Television programming about science took “Is it not a scandal, in this day and age, that and remain so today, from movies of meerkat off in the mid-1950s in the United Kingdom, there seems to be no place for continuing series antics to marching penguins. two decades after broadcasting began there of programmes about science?” asked veteran The most successful nature film series in 1936. Some science series were designed natural history broadcaster David Attenbor- to teach. Producers and scientists worked ough, lecturing on the future of public service together, mostly in live broadcasts such as Eye television in London on 30 April. “If you want on Research (1957–61), which took cameras an informed society, there has to be a basic into research establishments. understanding of science.” As television became a mass medium, sci- An exhibition opening next week at Lon- entists tried to influence how broadcasters don’s Science Museum, Films of Fact, charts represented science, but they did not always how science was introduced to the UK public get a good reception. “Priority must be given in documentary films and on television in the to the medium rather than scientific pedantry,” early twentieth century, from the birth of these ruled Aubrey Singer, head of the BBC’s science media to the 1960s. department in 1966. “The aim of scientific pro- Animals and plants featured in the first sci- gramming … is not necessarily the propagation ence films made for public viewing. Lasting of science” but “an enrichment of the audience for 56 seconds, the 1903 film Cheese Mites experience”. Similar attitudes prevail today. was first screened at London’s Alhambra Other documentaries, many commercially

Music Hall as part of a musical and theatri- sponsored, explored how new technologies THE BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE SUPPLIED BY GRID PLC; © NATIONAL cal playbill that included ballet and magic were transforming everyday life. Influential tricks. Filmed down a microscope by amateur film-maker Paul Rotha’s 1933 documentary natural historian Francis Martin Duncan, the Contact, sponsored by Imperial Airways, greatly magnified mites scuttle about. They captures aeroplane manufacture using beguil- may not seem riveting to our jaded eyes, but Comic chemistry: Rotha’s 1938 New Worlds for Old. ing and original cinematography. From the

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1930s, Rotha and others used angled shots Urban’s design; a Zeiss microscope of the type unusual elegance and beauty. A 1997 green and rapid editing — techniques pioneered by used by Smith; a Marconi IV studio television and turquoise gown by Thierry Mugler, for Russian film directors and cinematographers camera used in the 1960s; a Moviola editing example, seems to be destined for a creature — to celebrate innovations such as aircraft, machine; and a 1930s Newman Sinclair cine that is part bird, part crustacean; long-sleeved telephone networks, electricity and express camera. with a flowing train, it consists almost entirely railways. Enthusiasm for technology remains a Chief curator of the Science Museum, Tim- of feathers, its middle a segmented carapace. strong driver of scientific film and television. othy Boon, has written a well-researched book Spider-Man stirs skiwear designer Spyder, The Depression of the 1930s stimulated that provides background detail for historians whose web-patterned race suits are on display, documentaries in which scientists identified of UK science film-making during this period. as well as Giorgio Armani, whose offerings social problems and proposed solutions. In Other researchers are tackling French, Russian include a 1990 beige evening dress sheathed in 1936, Enough to Eat? relayed the shocking and US depictions of science on film and tele- a delicate web of insect-adorned netting. conclusion of nutritionist John Orr, in a study vision, plundering those nations’ archives with Body armour also enthralls avant-garde entitled Food, Health and Income for the UK equal diligence. Once these studies are com- fashionistas. The shield of superheroes Ministry of Agriculture, that half the popula- plete, it would be valuable to combine them such as Iron Man — played in this spring’s tion of the United Kingdom was too poor to into a global account of science on screen. blockbuster by Robert Downey Jr, whose maintain a healthy diet. “My ambition for the show,” says Boon, “is LED-eyed fibreglass costume is on show In the exhibition, film and television clips that by seeing different types of science films, here — finds new forms in such ensembles are projected onto a screen, and hundreds people will become more informed consumers as Gareth Pugh’s 2007 leather-and-synthetic of other clips from 38 films can be accessed of science television now.” Hopefully, greater dress. With sleeves formed of shiny, trian- interactively though two computer stations. knowledge of how science programming devel- gular black panels, it resembles a solar-pow- Pieces of film-making equipment are also on oped will guide decisions about its future. ■ ered bat. Speaking of bats, the show does show: a Moy and Bastie cine camera made to Colin Martin is a writer based in London. a nice sideline on stylish dominatrix wear, as epitomized by Michelle Pfeiffer in stilet- tos and clawed black gloves in the 1992 film Batman Returns, whose Catwoman costume spawned slinky offshoots by Gianni Versace. Super clothes with special powers Superheroes can also inspire real-world sci- ence. The Flash, created in 1940, possessed Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy the power of super speed, as symbolized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, his sleek scarlet bodysuit. Several outfits on New York display may increase the speed of the wearer. Until 1 September 2008. The outer texture of Speedo’s Fastskin FS-Pro swimsuit mimics shark skin, which the com- pany claims reduces drag by around 4%. More Shazam! With a bolt of lightning, 12-year-old impressive is Dava Newman’s body-hugging, Billy Batson turns into Captain Marvel, a flexible BioSuit, a space suit that relies on the

superhero with the wisdom of Solomon, the mechanical counter-pressure provided by INC. AEROSPACE M. KELLETT/ATAIR D. strength of Hercules, the stamina of Atlas, tight layers of material to protect the wearer the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles from the vacuum of space. Newman, a profes- and the speed of Mercury — legendary heroes sor of aeronautics and astronautics at the Mas- whose initials spell the magic command that sachusetts Institute of Technology, intends the gives Marvel his superhuman powers. With BioSuit to replace bulkier, gas-pressurized a similar spell, the Metropolitan Museum of space suits. Art in New York has transformed one of its Most impressive are the wing suits developed galleries into a shrine to modern mythical by Atair Aerospace. A pilot strapped to the rigid titans. Its new exhibition, Superheroes: Fashion wing suit — two polyethylene wings filled with and Fantasy, is craftily planted in the midst of jet fuel, powering turbines that provide almost its Greek and Roman art collection. Marble 500 newtons of thrust — can fly at speeds of up statues of Hercules, Diana and Perseus along to 350 kilometres per hour. Because the wing with amphorae depicting muscular run- suit’s wearer cannot be detected by radar, the ners and wrestlers surround their fantastic Sky-dive like a superhero in Atair’s soft wing suit. company is now developing a military model descendents: Superman, Wonder Woman, with which spies could jump out of an aero- Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. swimsuits, space suits and wing suits. plane in one country and fly to another. Inven- Extending our fascination with extremes of Superheroes might be mutants, armoured tor Daniel Preston, the founder of Atair, says he strength, endurance, speed and courage, the men, shape-shifters or gadgeteers; fashion has sky-dived hundreds of times in either the exhibition shows how the exaggerated forms designers draw inspiration from them all. rigid wing suit or a non-fuelled soft suit, which of superheroes are mirrored in haute cou- Mutants — usually the result of a lab acci- has fabric webbing between the legs and arms. ture. It also demonstrates how inventors have dent, genetic mishap or nuclear bomb blast No other experience so exactly captures life as incorporated aspects of superheroism — elas- — often appear in near-monstrous forms, a superhero, Preston says. “It’s as close as you ticity, rigidity and aerodynamic grace — into such as The Incredible Hulk. Designers have can get to being a bird.” ■ more practical kinds of clothing, such as transmuted these creations into garments of Josie Glausiusz is a writer based in New York.

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