CAREERS GENDER Negative self-bias taints female FUNDING Irish businesses to welcome NATUREJOBS For the latest career managers’ self-rating p.115 postgraduate students p.115 listings and advice www.naturejobs.com MONTY BRINTON/CBS VIA GETTY MONTY BRINTON/CBS Scenes from the US television comedy The Big Bang Theory benefit from the guidance of physicist David Saltzberg. MEDIA CONSULTING Entertaining science Scientific advisers for films and television help to bring credibility to the screen — and take some tangible and intangible benefits back to the lab. BY PAUL SMAGLIK in science-communication studies at the involvement in a TV show or film can help to University of Manchester, UK, and an expert educate people about research in the way that ere’s the pitch: swap running experi- on the intersection between Hollywood and the Star Trek film drew on images from NASA’s ments with advising on screenplays. science. “I kind of feel bad telling them they Cassini mission to Saturn, or how Contagion Mingle with stars instead of manag- probably can’t make a living doing this.” illustrates the functions of the US Centers for Hing postdocs. Become independently wealthy But many who advise as a ‘side job’ find these Disease Control and Prevention. Involvement instead of scrabbling for grants. Here’s the real- opportunities an entertaining adjunct to their can also help those shows to portray scientists ity: that could happen only in the movies. research careers. Physicist David Saltzberg as real people and role models rather than as Acting as a science adviser for film and consults regularly on The Big Bang Theory, negative or laughable stereotypes. television rarely turns into a full-time career. the popular US sitcom featuring physicists, but And some scientists do get paid — in one Most who become science advisers seldom, if he would not trade that experience for his day manner or another. They are often granted ever, rub shoulders with celebrities. And they job at the University of California, Los Ange- film or TV credits, as well as rewards hidden rarely get paid (see ‘All that glitters is not gold’). les — even if it were to pay more. “I have 30 within a film or show — their very own for- “I get an e-mail every month from research- years invested in physics,” he says. mula scribbled on a whiteboard or a textbook, ers who want to break into this business, So what is the benefit for scientists who go perhaps, with their name on it, up there on the thinking it will offer an alternative career, to Hollywood if it is not about big money or screen. And in addition to communicating saying, ‘How do I get into this? I want to quit getting their name in lights? They are myr- science to the general public, science advis- the lab,’” says David Kirby, a senior lecturer iad, says Kirby. Outreach is one: a scientist’s ers can take on stimulating challenges such 3 JULY 2014 | VOL 511 | NATURE | 113 © 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved CAREERS as drafting the rules of physics for a planet she met with him and the show’s writers. A science adviser tends to interact mostly with a different gravity from Earth’s or simulat- Of course, given the show’s subject with a show’s writers, and their first meeting is ing the destruction of a space station. matter — a mild-mannered high-school chem- often a crash course for the writers in learning They also get to have fun. istry teacher who starts making crystal meth- the everyday realities of science. A step into the world of Hollywood became a amphetamine, an illegal street drug, to fund his Nelson helped the writers to shape the Wal- case of fan fulfilment fantasy for James Kakalios, cancer treatment — she knew she had to tread ter White character: the way he interacted with science adviser on The Amazing Spider-Man. In carefully. She wanted to portray chemistry but his former student, Jesse, for example, and how 2001, he was a newly minted professor teach- did not want to glorify its misuse. Indeed, the he portrayed his respect for accuracy and logic ing physics to first-year undergraduates at the US Drug Enforcement in science. She recalls that the writers peppered University of Minnesota in Minneapolis — and Agency advised the her with questions, such as: “What are scien- he wanted to use more ‘fun’ examples than the show to skip certain tists like?” and “Is this how they would talk textbook staples of a brick sliding on a surface or aspects of the produc- to each other?” They asked what would drive a ball falling from a tower. So he created a course tion process. someone like White to get a PhD, how such a he called “Everything I Needed to Know About One of her first person could end up as a high-school teacher, SARAH TANTILLO Physics I Learned From Reading Comic Books”. inputs was in an epi- and what could influence a graduate student to Kakalios used some examples from the Spi- sode in which pro- give up a promising career in science. der-Man comics, such as how the superhero’s tagonist Walter White Seemingly innocuous questions can have adhesion to a wall would work using van der taught his students profound effects. The Big Bang writers asked Waals forces (weak electrodynamic forces about alkenes. White’s Saltzberg what one physicist character would that act over small distances) or how much classroom featured do to win back a love interest. Saltzberg vaguely force a falling body wrapped in a spiderweb Nelson’s blackboard suggested “something to do with holograms”. would exert. When the film Spider-Man was “When you are notes and diagrams, The writers and producers conjured a scene of released in 2002, he and the university wrote giving a talk or which attracted inter- the character projecting images of Earth and a press release describing his class. The release a lecture, you est from students the Milky Way for his girlfriend — in front of attracted media attention, so he turned his are putting on a around the world, a live studio audience, who gasped collectively, class into a book, which garnered more atten- show, like it or many of whom Saltzberg says. tion — and, eventually, he was invited to be a not. I probably started science blogs Working with Hollywood writers and science adviser for The Amazing Spider-Man. picked up a few that were based on producers has helped Saltzberg to develop He also advised on the film adaption of things.” ideas presented in the in ways he had not anticipated. He had to Watchmen, and subsequently produced a video David Saltzberg show. “They would broaden his knowledge beyond his speciality, explaining how one character’s powers could call me and interview for one thing. “As physicists, we are often dig- be explained by quantum physics. The video me and then argue on blogs about what was ging narrowly into our own fields,” he says. has been viewed more than 1.8 million times. correct or wrong. Or they would argue online And he thinks that his consulting work has Donna Nelson saw the same possibilities and then contact me for a comment,” she says. improved his interpersonal skills through the as Kakalios after reading an article in which “These kids were becoming science groupies.” need to interact with a set of writers and pro- Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan said that Scientist advisers on TV shows and films ducers. Before The Big Bang Theory, he was he wanted more formal science advice for his featuring scientists — such as The Big Bang involved in high-energy physics experiments crime-drama TV series. Nelson, a chemist Theory, Breaking Bad and Gravity — can help with hundreds of participants, so being a team at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, to create more nuanced versions of researchers player was nothing new. But, he says, “some- thought that she could use the series “to build than the usual evil nemesis or nerd character, thing must have happened, because collabora- a bridge between science and entertainment” such as a stereotypical James Bond villain or tion has become easier and easier”. and expose more viewers to realistic portrayals the eponymous lead character in The Nutty Working with professional storytellers has of science. Not long after contacting Gilligan, Professor. also improved his public speaking. “When you MEAGRE MONEY All that glitters is not gold “Credit optional. Remuneration especially US National Academy of Sciences’ Science Movie budgets include ‘over-the-line’ optional,” says Malcolm MacIver, who and Entertainment Exchange, which aims for expenses that must be paid — stars’ fees, provides science advice to film and television more and better portrayals of science and catering, car service — and ‘below-the-line’ productions when he can fit it into his day job scientists. On the other hand, not being paid expenses for perks or services that are as a bioengineer at Northwestern University in devalues the expertise the scientist brings to helpful but not essential, says Kirby. Science Evanston, Illinois. So how are most Hollywood the project. advisers’ fees fall into the second category, science advisers paid? “Bragging rights,” says Even screen credit is inconsistent. In Lab even though their input can alter a plot point MacIver, who often works for free, including Coats in Hollywood, science writer David or character development. on his first Hollywood film, Tron Legacy, and Kirby relates that caterers must be listed in Many scientists are prepared to work his most recent work, for Terminator: Genesis.