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Science in Popular Culture: A Reference Guide

Science in Popular Culture: A Reference Guide

by A. Bowdoin Van Riper
Science in Popular Culture: A Reference Guide
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ISBN-10:
0313318220
ISBN-13:
9780313318221
Pub. Date:
05/30/2002
Publisher:
Bloomsbury Academic
ISBN-10:
0313318220
ISBN-13:
9780313318221
Pub. Date:
05/30/2002
Publisher:
Bloomsbury Academic
Science in Popular Culture: A Reference Guide

Science in Popular Culture: A Reference Guide

by A. Bowdoin Van Riper

Overview

Spaceships travel through time at lightspeed, piloted by human clones and talking animals. Serious injuries are healed with the wave of a medical gizmo. The media makes it all look easy. Can scientists hope to accomplish such amazing feats in the real world, or are they merely flights of fancy? This book is a fun look at what can, and can't, be achieved with current technology in today's laboratory experiments.

Fans of the Jetsons, Star Trek, and Star Wars will learn the facts behind the fiction through entires that describe the scientific inventions and procedures on the screen, and how they differ from the reality. Van Riper shows us who innovators like Charles Darwin, Benjamin Franklin, and Isaac Newton really were before they were mythologized. He discusses how animals such as chimpanzees, dolphins, and elephants are portrayed in books and films, and what we really know about animal intelligence. This book lifts the curtain on science fiction, revealing how and where scientific laws have been discarded for the sake of a good plot.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780313318221
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date: 05/30/2002
Edition description: New Edition
Pages: 336
Product dimensions: 6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

A. BOWDOIN VAN RIPER is a professor in the Department of Social and International Studies at Southern Polytechnic State University. He specializes in the history of science and has written numerous articles on the history of space and aviation.

Table of Contents

Conventions Used in this Book
Introduction
Entries
Acceleration
Action-Reaction, Law of
Alternate Worlds
Androids
Atomic Energy
Chimpanzees
Clones
Comets
Computers
Cryonics
Cyborgs
Darwin, Charles
Death Rays
Dinosaurs
Dolphins
Dreams
Earthquakes
Eclipses
Einstein, Albert
Electricity
Elephants
Epidemics
Evolution
Evolution, Convergent
Evolution, Human
Experiments
Experiments on Self
Extinction
Flying Cars
Food Pills
Franklin, Benjamin
Galileo
Genes
Genetic Engineering
Gorillas
Gravity
Houses, Smart
Ideas, Resistance to
Inertia
Insects
Insects, Giant
Intelligence, Animal
Intelligence, Artificial
Intelligence, Human
Life, Extraterrestrial
Life, Origin of
Lightning
Longevity
Magnetism
Mars
Matter Transmission
Meteorites
Mind Control
Miniaturization
Miracle Drugs
Moon
Mutations
Newton, Isaac
Organ Transplants
Prehistoric Humans
Prehistoric Time
Psychic Powers
Race
Radiation
Relativity
Religion and Science
Reproduction
Robots
Sharks
Space Travel, Interplanetary
Space Travel, Interstellar
Speed of Light
Speed of Sound
Superhumans
Theory
Time Travel
UFOs
Vacuum
Venus
Volcanoes
Whales
General Bibliography
Index

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