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Scientific breakthroughs inspire science fiction. But that door swings both ways, because popular science fiction and its reception also affect scientific research and its reputation, as the general public is more likely to read a science fiction novel or see a movie than to discuss the merits of the latest genetic studies. The most popular science fiction comes from someone who follows science and thinks, “What could possibly go wrong?” The classic example is the group of young educated writers who got together around the time Luigi Galvani was getting publicity for his experiments in animating frog muscles with electricity.
While the group of friends at Lake Geneva imagined the ghoulish possibilities of galvanism, one young woman was so horrified by the idea of reanimating corpses that she subsequently had a dream in which she saw “the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together.” This dream inspired her to write a horror story in which a “mad scientist” creates a monster out of dead body parts, a monster that wreaks havoc and kills innocents. The author is Mary Shelley. The story, of course, is Frankenstein. Considered by many to be the first true work of science fiction, it was certainly the world’s first cautionary tale about the perils of science messing around with life.
There are other examples in a post at Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Author Laura H. Kahn wants to encourage scientists to write more fiction, so that stories about science could be more informative, and maybe a little less horrifying. Link -Thanks, Janice!
Is this the latest fashion style, or are these poor models being held hostage by some cult leader fashion designer and forced to strut up and down the runway? Maybe they’re trying out for the henchman position, and they’re competing for who looks best in the costume.
The truth is these are a few of the outfits from Thom Browne’s latest designer fashion line, and he admits that the line was influenced by science fiction.
The two outfits pictured above are actually the most tame in the collection, so do yourself a favor and hit the link to see the rest of these far out fashions. It’s like looking through images from the Henchman’s Ball.
Link –via Laughing Squid
This little short film appears to be a teaser for a longer story by effects designer Aaron Sims. If he is trying to raise interest in getting a studio to fund a feature film, this is the way to do it. Wouldn’t you like to see the rest of the story? Link -via Geeks Are Sexy
Man, I used to love me some Buck Rogers In The 25th Century when I was a kid, and not just because I had a serious crush on co-star Erin Gray! The sci-fi was just far out enough to hold your attention without making you learn an encyclopaedic amount of factoids, and the fashion was dy-no-mite!
All kidding aside, as a kid growing up in the 80s Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica fed my geeky addiction to sci-fi like no other show could, and kept me firmly planted in front of the television, my mind racing at the possibilities presented in each episode.
Head to the link to find a bunch of sci-fi elements Buck Rogers predicted would become a part of mankind’s future. They’re hilarious and mostly outdated, although if any of them do come true the future will be a scary place indeed!
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The
world's oldest profession meets science fiction. That's the vision of
Dennis Hof, the
owner of two of Nevada's most notorious brothels and star of the HBO documentary
Cathouse.
Henry Brean of the Las Vegas Review-Journal has the story:
The reality television star and outspoken sex merchant recently bought a rundown bordello 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas and unveiled plans to renovate and reopen it with a science fiction theme.
He is calling it Alien Cathouse and promising "girls from another world."
Hof has turned to an old friend to plan the costumes and decor: Hollywood Madam turned Pahrump resident Heidi Fleiss.
"She's the chief alien design queen," he said.
Link (Image: David Stroud/Las Vegas Review-Journal) - via io9
This infographic features all the core information you need to know about nearly 50 years of Doctor Who. It’s easy to read, reduces the series to three major elements (Doctor, Companion and Foes), and won’t hurt your eyes like watching decades worth of episodes in order to get caught up.
Check out the full length version at the link below, it’s all you really need to know about everyone’s favorite Time Lord. I wonder why the 8th Doctor never battled any Daleks?
Link –via Geekologie
Of course you want to visit Pandora! We all do! But since it’s a fictional planet, maybe the next best thing would be to visit the location where Avatar was filmed. You can do that, because it was in the Keahua Arboretum in Hawaii. The arboretum is chock-full of lush and exotic plant life, just like Pandora -without the Na’vi or the man-eating monsters. Find out eleven more locations where your favorite sci-fi movies were shot at TravelSupermarket. Link -Thanks, Danny!
In 1978, Glen A. Larson launched his ambitious space saga Battlestar Galactica. It was a grand story of a clash of civilizations and battle for survival. But its ratings could not justify its enormous production expense, and the show folded. A brief return in 1980 offered hope, but that came to nothing. For a generation, Battlestar Galactica fans lobbied for a revival and their efforts finally came to fruition in a re-imagined version of the show in a 2003 miniseries, followed by four seasons of storytelling. Here are eleven facts that you might not know about that latter series.
1. Laura Roslin’s swearing-in ceremony as the President of the Twelve Colonies was modeled after that of Lyndon Johnson onboard Air Force One after the assassination of President Kennedy.
2. Grace Park initially auditioned for role of Dualla. She was turned down, but told by directors to audition for the role of Starbuck. She did so, but was instead offered the role of Boomer.
3. At 22, Katee Sackoff was much younger than what the directors had in mind for Starbuck, but she aced the audition and was given the role. The decision to make Starbuck a woman although the original Starbuck had been a man was deeply controversial among BSG fans. Dirk Benedict, the actor who played Starbuck in the 1978 series, strongly and repeatedly objected to this change. But eventually he and Sackoff came to an understanding that allowed them to work together.
4. Sackoff has a tattoo of the Latin words bona fiscalia, which means “public property.” It’s a reminder to her that she is a role model to people and that this entails a high responsibility.
more …
How’s this for a collaboration-Neil Gaiman, his wife and member of the Dresden Dolls Amanda Palmer, electronic guru Moby and Stephin Merritt from The Magnetic Fields stop by the Late Late Show and played Science Fiction Double Feature from the Rocky Horror Picture Show!
–via ComicsAlliance
What would you think if you saw this thing walking down the street, eight feet tall and full of sinister snarl? Personally, i’d steer clear unless I had a squad of Spartans by my side, you know, like the ones found in the HALO video game franchise? (Thanks for the nerd edit Bearfoot!)
Hit the link and see the process from mere mortal to becoming this amazing alien creature.
Three astronauts touch down after being cryogenically frozen for years during their space flight. This is a choose-your-own-adventure type video, where you select what happens next. Of course, if you are like me, the premise will immediately remind you of a certain Charleton Heston film from the early ’70s. -via the Presurfer
Ahh NYC, the sprawling metropolis that inspired Metropolis, a gritty gothic landscape that inspired Gotham City, the home of X-Men, Ninja Turtles and Futurama’s Planet Express.
In honor of the New York Comic Con taking place this weekend, here’s a geeky tour guide’s dream map of the city, showing where things would, should and might someday be located, complete with color coded genre so you can tell whether the location is from a comic book, movie, tv show or video game.
Now go forth and see the mundane real life counterparts of these fantastic locations for yourself!
Through the eyes of Robbi Rodriguez, pop culture icons such as Doctor Who, Darth Vader and the Rocketeer are imbued with frenetic energy, rendered in pen and ink with jagged outlines and a roughness which is counterbalanced by sharp, smooth detail. Take your eyeballs on a tour of the pic gallery posted on ComicsAlliance, then head to Robbi’s website for more ocular delights!
Link -via ComicsAlliance
Comments Off I’m sure you’re thinking “Gee, just what we need, another deleted scene…”, but this one’s a little different than the rest. In this scene from The Empire Strikes Back, featuring Han and Leia bickering and oozing all kinds of sexual tension, you get to see Harrison Ford’s acting sound forced and a bit hackneyed, which may result in feelings of disillusionment and sadness. Not all deleted scenes hit the cutting room floor due to time constraints, some were removed to avoid fan heartbreak!
-via Ology
If you have ever seen Adventure Time on Cartoon Network, then you are already familiar with Oliver’s surreal and quirky cartoon style. If you love cartoons but have never seen Adventure Time then you’re missing out on a great show! Oliver tackles pop culture icons from cartoons, video games, and the movies and brings his own stylistic simplicity to the characters, then his bold use of color completes each piece and really makes them pop. In the age of digital art Oliver is keeping it old school! Check out the artist’s blogsite for many more examples of his cute and unique style.
Link -via ComicsAlliance
The best way to live long in prosper is with a nice warm Star Trek quilt. I think you will agree when you check out this gallery of quilts all featuring characters from the original Star Trek, made by The Alligator Bride.
Link -via Geeks are Sexy
Dan Meth has put together a series of pop culture charts. Number 6 explores which year in the future science fiction films take place. I had no idea A Clockwork Orange took place in 1995. I remember that year being a lot more low key.
Link via Geeks Are Sexy
The vision of the future from the past (retro-future) is usually a funny and interesting topic. That’s why this list of video games from old science fiction films and television shows is so great. In the future we will achieve inter planetary space travel but our video games will be really lame (sadly it seems the opposite is unfolding.)
Science fiction is all about advancing into a shinier future – so why are people always playing such terrible video games in science fiction shows and movies? In the distant future, will we really be stuck playing bad 8-bit knockoffs, or trying to get a Frisbee into a tentacle mouth over and over? Here’s are the 10 most embarrassing games people play in science fiction.
NPR is trying to create a list of the best 100 science fiction books. Their audience suggested thousands of titles, which they narrowed to only several hundred, on which you are invited to vote.
Scrolling through the list of great science fiction and fantasy reads below will feel like a journey back in time for some of us, a voyage of discovery for others. But novice or veteran, everyone loves a contest. So, let the voting begin!
Here’s how: Everyone gets 10 votes. Select your top 10 favorite titles, and then scroll down to the bottom of the poll and click “Submit.” Feel free to lobby for your favorites in the comments. We’ll be back in about 10 days with the results.
Even deciding on just ten will be difficult! Link -via Metafilter
(Image credit: Chris Silas Neal)
The Planet of the Apes franchise is rebooting this week and for most science fiction fans the original film is a classic. However there are many other great stories of animals who become “uplifted” to human level intelligences, such as “Lives of the Monster Dogs” about dogs who are given “upper class manners.” If you could give any animal human intelligence what type of animal would you give it to?
At one time, the future was glorious. Golden Age space illustrations were colorful, exciting, and made us hope to live long enough to see such wondrous things come about! See some fantastic vintage artwork depicting the future at Dark Roasted Blend. Link
The other night I turned on TV and caught half an episode of the original Star Trek where Captain Kirk meets Abraham Lincoln. Seriously. Sometimes even our favorite science fiction and fantasy franchises can be quite silly. Check out this list of unintentionally hilarious lines from science fiction and fantasy. What are some favorites of yours?
Sometimes our favorite movies and TV shows feature some hideously ridiculous dialogue. Sometimes nonsensical and melodramatic speech is part of why bad movies are such a guilty pleasure. Here are the 10 awesomest lines of unintentionally funny dialogue from science fiction and fantasy movies and television.
The fact that most aliens from outer space in science fiction movies and TV shows have the same shape as humans can be explained rather simply: that’s the only way an actor can fit into the costume. But it doesn’t help us imagine the probability that any extraterrestrial life would not resemble humans at all. Kyle Munkittrick constructed a theory, adapted from an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation that reconciles this anomaly by explaining why distant planets have human-shaped intelligent beings, called the Hominid Panspermia Theory.
Intelligent life evolved in the universe – 0nce. The First Intelligent Species became spacefaring but, unlike the adventures depicted in most science fiction, they found an uninhabited universe. Non-intelligent species were too rudimentary or too far away to be detected. Thus, as both a memorial to themselves and to enliven the universe, the First Intelligent Species seeded the necessary DNA for the eventual evolution of intelligent life in the primordial oceans of every planet that could support life. The First Intelligent Species did not only design the DNA to evolve intelligently, but to parallel their own evolution. An application of the idea that “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny” on the scale of life itself. Our corner of the universe thereby became the home of Vulcans, Romulans, Cardassians, Humans, Betazoids, and other hominid species which are all decedents of the First Intelligent Species. Therefore, in the eyes of the universe, the many hominid species are closely related despite their disparate home planets.
Of course, the theory itself is science fiction, but the mental exercise helps the scientist to enjoy science fiction, no matter how cheesy the alien design. As a bonus, the graphic at the article has twenty aliens you are invited to help identify. Link
Mama told me not to trust those Martians! The song is from The Imagined Village. The clips are from various space movies and TV shows that you’ll find listed at the YouTube page. -via Buzzfeed
May 25th is Towel Day {wiki} in tribute to Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. He wrote that a towel is “the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have.”
On Towel Day, all of Adams’ fans are encouraged to carry a towel around with them, or to at least know where their towel is, following the great tradition of hitchhiking, traveling, managing, and adventuring laid out in his work. Naturally, this got us to thinking about all the hoopy (really together guy) froods (really amazingly together guys) that we know in fiction that really know where their towels are. You know, the characters who you could drop off anywhere and anywhere in the space time continuum, and come back in an hour and they’d already be lounging in perfect confidence and opulence, nocking back something highly alcoholic. Any one who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.
Movie, comic, and science fiction fans will surely find something to argue over in this list at The Mary Sue. Link -Thanks, Susana Polo!
Ray guns have been featured in everything from War of The Worlds t Star Wars, yet it seems a hand held ray gun is still a thing of science fiction. Here however is a history of the imaginary device as it appears in different books and movies.
The ray gun is but one invention that, in the optimistic futurism of the early-to-mid 20th century, seemed to be just around the corner, like personal jet packs, food in pill form, and machines that launder your washing and hand it back to you neatly wrapped up in Celophane (thanks, Lost In Space).
While many sites are posting about wonderful, selfless mothers that make you feel inadequate on Mothers Day, here’s a list that will make you or your mom feel like a saint in comparison! Pop culture has moms that eat their young -sometimes literally. First on the list: Mom, from Futurama.
She has three sons, and she knows the father of one of them for certain. But she smacks them around and insults them on a fairly regular basis. Though they’re all pretty stupid and infatuated with her that they don’t seem to notice they’re being physically and emotionally abused. And ripped off — Mom owns 99.7 percent of MOMCORP while the other .3 percent is evenly distributed among the three of them. But like I said, they probably have no idea. Is it abuse if they don’t notice? If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? Exactly. (Mom said that’s how it works.)
Link -Thanks, Susana!
From the it-must-be-real-cuz-I-saw-it-in-the-movies department, here’s the shocking (or not so shocking, depending on your level of faith in humanity) results from a recent survey of British adults, as conducted by Birmingham
Science City:
1. Over a fifth of adults incorrectly believe light sabres exist.
2. Nearly a quarter (24%) of people are wrong in their belief that humans can be teleported.
3. Nearly 50% of adults wrongly believe that memory-erasing technology exists.
4. More than 40% of people incorrectly believe that hover boards exist.
5. Nearly one fifth (18%) of adults have the incorrect view that they can see gravity.
Link – via AOL Weird News
Looking at this list, I realize that the seeds that spawned the cult of the geek were indeed planted in the movies of the ’80s, as opposed to the rise of the internet in the ’90s.
For those of you who grew up at least in part in the eighties, you know that it wasn’t all about Molly Ringwald and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Though not all cinematic masterpieces, there were a lot of really fun movies that glorified the geeks of the day. Here are a few you could pick up for nostalgia’s sake – or especially if you missed the eighties, make sure you’ve seen these if you haven’t!
It’s all there -science, space, robotics, computers, and of course, socially awkward teenagers. Link
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This chart posted at io9 exposes the many liberties filmmakers take with science in movies about space. The only two films to receive a clean bill are true stories from history. Link -via The High Definite
