SCIENCE IN POPULAR CULTURE: A Reference Guide A. Bowdoin Van Riper GREENWOOD PRESS SCIENCE IN POPULAR CULTURE SCIENCE IN POPULAR CULTURE A Reference Guide A. Bowdoin Van Riper GREENWOOD PRESS Westport, Connecticut • London Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Van Riper, A. Bowdoin. Science in popular culture : a reference guide / A. Bowdoin Van Riper. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–313–31822–0 (alk. paper) 1. Science in popular culture. I. Title. Q172.5.P65V36 2002 306.4'5—dc21 2001055616 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright ᭧ 2002 by A. Bowdoin Van Riper All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2001055616 ISBN: 0–313–31822–0 First published in 2002 Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.greenwood.com Printed in the United States of America TM The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984). 10987654321 to Julie Newell colleague • wife • inspiration CONTENTS Acknowledgments xi Conventions Used in This Book xiii Introduction xv Science in Popular Culture 1 Acceleration 3 Action and Reaction, Law of 5 Alternate Worlds 7 Androids 10 Atomic Energy 13 Chimpanzees 18 Cloning 21 Comets 27 Computers 30 Cryonics 35 Cyborgs 38 Darwin, Charles 41 Death Rays 45 Dinosaurs 48 Dolphins 53 Dreams 56 viii Contents Earthquakes 59 Eclipses 63 Einstein, Albert 66 Electricity 69 Elephants 73 Epidemics 76 Evolution 80 Evolution, Convergent 84 Evolution, Human 87 Experiments 91 Experiments on Self 95 Extinction 98 Flying Cars 101 Food Pills 104 Franklin, Benjamin 107 Galileo 111 Genes 115 Genetic Engineering 119 Gorillas 123 Gravity 126 Houses, Smart 132 Ideas, Resistance to 135 Inertia 139 Insects 141 Insects, Giant 147 Intelligence, Animal 150 Intelligence, Artificial 153 Intelligence, Human 156 Life, Extraterrestrial 161 Contents ix Life, Origin of 166 Lightning 169 Longevity 173 Magnetism 176 Mars 179 Matter Transmission 183 Meteorites 186 Mind Control 190 Miniaturization 193 Miracle Drugs 196 Moon 199 Mutations 203 Newton, Isaac 206 Organ Transplants 210 Prehistoric Humans 213 Prehistoric Time 217 Psychic Powers 220 Race 223 Radiation 229 Relativity 232 Religion and Science 235 Reproduction 239 Robots 242 Scientific Theories 248 Sharks 252 Space Travel, Interplanetary 256 Space Travel, Interstellar 262 Speed of Light 268 Speed of Sound 271 x Contents Superhumans 274 Time Travel 279 UFOs 284 Vacuum 287 Venus 290 Volcanoes 294 Whales 298 General Bibliography 301 Index 303 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book would not exist if Debra Adams, an acquisitions editor at Greenwood Publishing Group, had not seen a need and set out to fill it. The concept and basic structure of the book are hers, and her astute suggestions during the writing process have shaped countless details of its format, content, and style. We have never met face to face, but our interactions by phone and e-mail have been models of the writer-editor partnership. Production editor Megan Peckman and her staff have also been a great help, especially in guiding me through the intricacies of choosing illus- trations. Copyeditor Pelham Boyer artfully improved my prose in many places and caught several errors of fact that had slipped by me. Over the year and a half it took to write Science in Popular Culture, friends, colleagues, and family members have patiently answered what must have seemed like an endless series of bizarre questions. They have also given me places to write, editorial advice, technical expertise, and a chance to fine-tune my writing style by “test driving” parts of the book as members of its target audience. Thanks, in alphabetical order, to: John Lockhart, Joe Mundt, Julie Newell, Alan Riley, Judy Riley, John Szucs, Jan Van Riper, Tony Van Riper, James Whitenton, and those whose names I have inevitably forgotten. All have helped to make this a better and more complete book, and all have my heartfelt thanks and appre- ciation. I also owe three other debts, less concrete but no less significant. The first is to my daughter Katie, now six, who enriched the book by helping me to rediscover the world of children’s entertainment. The second is to Jim Berkowitz, pop culture maven extraordinaire, who long ago taught me to read what is written below the surface of popular culture. The third is to the dedicated creators of pop culture Web sites, who put the answers to seemingly unanswerable questions (“What’s the name of that cartoon where Bugs Bunny is trying to fly the giant plane?”) at my fin- gertips. The Internet may not have transformed the world, but it has surely transformed the study of popular culture. CONVENTIONS USED IN THIS BOOK The metric system, though virtually universal in science, is still unfa- miliar to most Americans. All measurements in this book are, therefore, given in the English system. Dates given for creative works reflect first publication for books, plays, and stories; first release for movies; first network run for TV series; and the equivalents for other media. All works are listed by their U.S. titles. Names of book authors are given as they appear on the title page, re- gardless of the author’s real name (e.g., Mark Twain, not Samuel L. Clemens). Popular songs, unless otherwise specified, are attributed to the songwriters rather than to the performers. Names of movie and televi- sion characters are followed, in parentheses, by the names of the actors who played them. All names, titles, dates, and similar information about creative works have been checked against standard reference sources (listed in the Gen- eral Bibliography) and are believed to be accurate. Any errors and omissions are unintentional. INTRODUCTION When a character in a movie or television show easily finds a parking space in front of a downtown building at midday, we accept it as dra- matic license. We say “That’s Hollywood!” to ourselves or the person next to us and turn our attention back to the story—knowing all the while that in the real world, there is seldom a parking space empty when we need one. The dramatic license is obvious because it involves some- thing that we do every day. We excuse it because we know that watching the hero circling the block would derail the story. Other examples of dramatic license pass unnoticed because they are outside of our everyday experience. Sailors wince when the skipper of a fictional schooner sends crew members aloft to furl the mainsail. Gun enthusiasts groan when a fictional villain pulls out a silenced revolver. Paleontologists chuckle when the cover of Jurassic Park features a dinosaur that lived not in the Jurassic but in the later Cretaceous period. Audience members who are experts in other areas enjoy the show, untroubled. This book is an attempt to separate reality from dramatic license in popular culture’s treatment of science and of some of the technologies deeply influenced by it. Each of its eighty-one entries deals with a science-related object, idea, person, process, or concept. Each briefly sum- marizes the current understanding of the topic, then discusses its portrayal in popular culture and, where possible, the roots of that por- trayal. The titles of the entries sometimes, for the sake of clarity, reflect popular culture rather than science: No compact, scientifically accurate phrase covers the same ground as “death ray” or “miracle drug.” Each entry concludes with a list of related entries and a brief list of suggested readings that (in the interest of accessibility) emphasizes books, large- circulation periodicals, and established Web sites. The bibliography at the end of the book covers general works on science, popular culture, and science in popular culture. This book is designed to serve multiple purposes. One is to separate xvi Introduction fact from fiction in popular culture’s depiction of particular scientific and technological topics. A second is to identify exemplary treatments of par- ticular scientific topics in popular culture. A third is to explore recurring patterns in popular culture’s depictions of science and technology in gen- eral. Individual entries may also serve as brief introductions to, and guides to further reading about, their subjects. “Science” is both a body of knowledge and the process used to expand and revise it. The body of knowledge includes discrete facts, patterns that order them, and explanations of why those patterns exist. The proc- ess of expanding and revising that body of knowledge has many ele- ments, among them observation, experimentation, mathematical analysis, and computer modeling. All can be used to test new explana- tions and reexamine old ones. The results of the process are shaped, but not determined, by the cultural context in which it takes place: influences such as political tensions, economic pressures, religious beliefs, personal ambitions, and institutional rivalries. Science’s multifaceted nature complicates the process of defining its boundaries. Where those boundaries fall—which ideas they include and which they exclude—has been the subject of debate for centuries. For practical reasons such as length, this work defines “science” conserva- tively and draws its outer boundaries narrowly. The majority of the en- tries deal with topics from the familiar “natural science” disciplines: chemistry, physics, biology, geology, astronomy, meteorology, and bio- logical anthropology. Some entries, however, cross that boundary, in or- der to deal with topics in medicine (epidemics), psychology (dreams, intelligence), and especially technology (computers, robots, space travel). A handful of essays focus on subjects that fall well outside mainstream science. Some (UFOs, psychic powers) treat ideas championed by small groups of enthusiasts but rejected or viewed with intense skepticism by mainstream scientists.