Biology in Science Fiction

Amy Sterling Casil: Perfect Strangers

2008-05-15T01:33:00.000-07:00

Denny was born with HLHS. That's an acronym for hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Hypoplastic left heart syndrome is universally fatal, if left untreated. Even now, there are babies that do not survive, even with full-lenght clone DNA therapy administered in-utero.
When at five months of pregnancy, Carolyn went for a high-level ultrasound that determined Denny had HLHS, it seemed like the most natural thing in the world to try gene therapy. The doctors explained how the heart healed itself as the baby grew.
~ "Perfect Strangers", Amy Sterling Casil

Amy Sterling Casil's "Perfect Strangers" is a touching story of a father and his genetically engineered son. Her preface notes that the story was inspired by her own experience, which makes it all the more moving for me:

My son Anthony died in 2005. He was born with Down Syndrome. I began thinking about what this story became when the genetic counselor discussed chromosomal abnormalities with me, saying that a cure for them was a long way off, but other genetic illnesses would soon be cured. Every therapy mentioned in the story is currently being developed. The story is fiction; the feelings are real.

While the technology is certainly being discussed and developed, I don't think we are anywhere near to routine human genetic engineering. It's not just that there are technical difficulties (and there are), but serious ethical concerns. Take, for example, this week's report of the first genetically modified human embryo. The scientists didn't attempt to make any changes to human genes; instead they inserted DNA that encodes a fluorescent protein allowing the modified cells could be tracked. The embryo that was used was abnormal and nonviable, and was never intended to implanted or even develop beyond five days. Even so, there research provoked intense debate and discussion. I do believe that genetic engineering technology will eventually improve to the point that it can be used safely in humans, but the ethical concerns that arise from the technology will be harder to overcome.

"Perfect Strangers" was originally published in the September 2006 issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction. You can read it free online (pdf).

Tags:science fiction, genetic engineering

Cancer Killing Virus Are Real - But Unlikely to Destroy the Human Race

2008-05-14T23:29:00.000-07:00

In the recent movie version of I Am Legend the plague that kills off most of the human race starts off as a genetically modified measles virus that was designed as a cure for cancer. Mutation causes the virus to become lethal, rapidly killing off 90% of the human population. According to Science Daily, the engineered virus the movie depicts (in its cancer-curing, not human-killing, form) came as a big surprise to one virologist:

Early on in the movie, survivor Robert Neville (Will Smith) replays a three-year-old TV interview which foreshadows the impending disaster.
“So, Dr. Krippin, give it to me in a nutshell,” says the TV interviewer.

“Well, the premise is quite simple,” responds the scientist. “Um, take something designed by nature and reprogram it to make it work for the body rather than against it.”

In his airplane seat, Dr. [Patrick] Lee’s jaw is dropping. Not a movie-goer, he didn’t catch the movie in theatres when it came out last Christmas, although a colleague at McGill thought he should.

“That’s my research. I can’t believe it, that’s my research,” he says. “I was the first one to use a virus to target cancer cells.”

Lee's current research at Dalhousie University uses human reovirus, rather than measles, to target cells with an activated form of the proto-oncogene Ras or the Ras signaling pathway. For more information about how the reovirus works, check out this video from Oncolytics Biotech and US Patent 6110461. Clinical trials are currently underway.

Despite the similarity to his research, Lee is certain that his virus won't run amok and destroy the human race.

“I thought the movie was very entertaining but the scenario it presents is highly unlikely, almost impossible,” he says.
With a pause, he adds: “Scientists don’t like to deal in absolutes, but in this case, I would say absolutely impossible."

Hopefully he's right about that . . .

Image: Electron micrograph of Rotavirus, a type of Reovirus.
Tags:I Am Legend, viruses

Science in the Movies: Science Fiction that Gets it Right?

2008-05-12T23:45:00.000-07:00

Michael Marshall at New Scientist has picked out five science fiction movies that "contain some accurate, plausible science. They may not be completely realistic, but they get it right when it matters most." Three of their five choices are based on the biological sciences:

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) makes the list for its depiction of how memory is stored.

Sensibly, the film depicts memory as essentially a network of links. In its frenetic second half, Joel is asleep while the technicians "operate" on his mind. We follow as he careens from recent memories of his relationship to those of his earliest childhood.

Alien (1979) gets a thumb up for its depiction of the alien's life cycle, despite it's fantastic growth rate.

Every element of the life cycle can be found in nature, variously in parasites, robber wasps and social insects. Much of the film's suspense comes from the filmmakers' decision to let events unfold without too much explanation – the viewer has to piece the life cycle together for themselves.

Perennial favorite Gattaca (1997) is included for its "grimly plausible vision of a society dominated by genetic prejudice."

The other two on the list are 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), for its depiction of space travel and Solaris (1972, 2002) for its "portrayal of the limits of science and of human understanding."

The great thing about all these movies is not just that (at least some) of the science they depict is plausible, but that they are entertaining. There is no reason why the science has to be awful to make a good movie.

Tags:science fiction, biology, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Alien, Gattaca, movies

Artifical Womb vs. Human Uterus

2008-05-09T02:04:00.000-07:00

Mr. Foster duly told them.

Told them of the growing embryo on its bed of peritoneum. Made them taste the rich blood surrogate on which it fed. Explained why it had to be stimulated with placentin and thyroxin. told them of the corpus luteum extract. Showed them the jets through which at every twelfth metre from zero to 2040 it was automatically injected. Spoke of those gradually increasing doses of pituitary administered during the final ninety-six metres of their course. Described the artificial maternal circulation installed in every bottle at Metre 112; showed them the reservoir of blood-surrogate, the centrifugal pump that kept the liquid moving over the placenta and drove it through the synthetic lung and waste product filter. Referred to the embryo's troublesome tendency to anaemia, to the massive doses of hog's stomach extract and foetal foal's liver with which, in consequence, it had to be supplied. Showed them the simple mechanism by means of which, during the last two metres out of every eight, all the embryos were simultaneously shaken into familiarity with movement. Hinted at the gravity of the so-called "trauma of decanting" and enumerated the precautions taken to minimize, by a suitable training of the bottled embryo, that dangerous shock.
[. . . ]
Which brings us at last," continued Mr. Foster," out of the realm of mere slavish imitation of nature into the much more interesting world of human invention." He rubbed his hands. For of course, they didn't content themselves with merely hatching out embryos: any cow could do that.

~ Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

io9's resident Biogeek, Terry Johnson, looks at the human uterus and the possibility of artificial wombs in fact and fiction. His conclusion isn't too inspiring if you were hoping to have a bottle baby any time soon:

As surprising and weird as this all is, we're still many decades away from a safe, human uterine replicator that can bring an embryo from conception to zeroeth birthday party. Even once we've sorted out the technical aspects of the womb itself, we'll have to deal with what the rest of the mother's body contributes to development. Hormones have already been mentioned, but baby also borrows mommy's disease-fighting machinery. Our replicator will require nearly complete endocrine and immune systems, too.

The human uterus may not be perfect, but it works. Even if a safe artificial uterus is eventually developed, I'd expect it to be much more expensive than natural gestation, meaning that it would be an option limited to the wealthy and well-connected.

I don't think it's that far fetched to think that instead of artificial wombs, natural mammalian reproductive systems might be repurposed for carrying human embryos. There have been a number of cross-species surrogates that carried embryos from endangered species. Of course there are kinks to be worked out, since it doesn't always work, but at least the environment is basically friendly to embryonic growth. And why stop there?

It annoyed Io's best friend to give birth to a four-kilo cylinder of tightly wound, medium-grade, placental solvent filters.

For five long months Perseph had kept to a diet free of sugar, sniff or tobac – well, almost free. the final ten weeks she'd spend waddling around in the Bedouin drapery fashion decreed for pieceworkers this year. And all that for maybe two thousand dollars' worth of industrial sieves little better than a fabricow might produce.

~ "Piecework", David Brin

Already "pharming" techniques have been used to engineer goats that produce insulin or other drugs in their milk. The next step could be to use wombs for industrial fabrication of organic materials, not unlike the "fabricows" and poor women in David Brin's creepy short story "Piecework". Even in Brin's future world, the most delicate and important product - human babies - are still only human produced.

For more detailed background on research on artificial wombs, see this related 2005 article in Popular Science.

Image: "Suspended Fetus 3" by moyix on flickr
Tags:science fiction, biology, reproduction, surrogacy, artificial womb

Stories Hollywood Should Film

2008-05-08T23:30:00.000-07:00

This week's Mind Meld at SF Signal asked what SF stories Hollywood should make into movies. There are answers from authors Lou Anders,John C. Wright, Michael Wentz, Michael Blackmore, Angela @ SciFi Chick, and me. Check it out.

Tags:science fiction, movies

Aliens at the Montreal Science Centre

2008-05-06T00:43:00.000-07:00

The Montréal Science Centre currently has a cool-sounding exhibition on the science of aliens. According to an article in The Star, the exhibition focuses on what the plant and animal life might be like on two possible planet types:

Using the expertise of a number of renowned scientists, the exhibition presents ideas on what aliens might look like, taking into consideration biology, astronomy, and the laws of physics and chemistry.
"It's fiction, yes, but it's science-based science fiction," says Louise Julie Bertrand, the head of exhibitions at the Centre. Such an exercise, she adds, will appeal to both kids and adults. "People are often attracted to the bizarre and intriguing and weird."
The stars of the exhibition are these alien forms envisioned by the scientists to fit the specific characteristics of two "planets," such as carbon content, the temperature, the type of atmosphere.
"It was a real attempt to come up with creatures, that, although fanciful, are plausible," says Michael Meyer, an astrobiologist and the lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program.

There are two fictional planets in the exhibition. "Blue Moon" has a very dense atmosphere, which allows a great variety of flying critters. "Aurelia" closely orbits a star much cooler than our own sun:

The top predator on Aurelia is the bipedal gulphog, which has a long neck and a claw-like beak, and stands 4.5 metres tall. It might feed on six-legged mudpods that scurry on the ground, hide in burrows, and swim like crocodiles. There are also stinger fans, which look like plants but are actually animals that use tentacles to capture a weak star's energy.

Assumptions were made when the planetary flora and fauna were being designed: there is oxygen in the atmosphere, and alien evolution proceeds similarly to evolution here on Earth. The idea was to make the life forms plausible based on what we know about biology.

In addition to the fictional planets, a section of the exhibition looks at aliens in science fiction movies and books.

If you are thinking of going, you might want to wait until Sunday, May 25th, which is Montréal Museum Day and all the exhibits are free. If I were in Quebec, I'd definitely go check it out. The exhibit runs through September 1.

(This is a exhibit created by "the science of . . ." that has already exhibited in London and Miami. It is also currently showing at the The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo, Japan through June 16. )

Tags:science fiction, biology, aliens, Montreal Science Centre

Bad Biology in Cloverfield

2008-05-05T22:16:00.000-07:00

Mad Biologist Carlo Artieri has an interesting post about the bad biology in recent monster movie Cloverfield. The biggest problem: "the monster violates the rules of rules of allometric scaling." Go read his post to find out what that means.

If that's not enough for you, Michael LaBarbera's Biology of B-Movie Monsters has a more detailed analysis of the biological problems with very big (and very small) creatures.

Tags:science fiction, biology

Ann Halam's Young Adult SF

2008-05-04T22:19:00.000-07:00

John Scalzi has an interesting post about the science fiction to be found in the young adult section. It never occurred to me to go looking outside the adult areas of my local library and the nearest B&N, mostly because there are so many books on my "to read" list already. But now at least I know to be on the lookout for novels that aren't shelved in the regular SFF section. By coincidence I recently ran across a young adult novel that sounds quite interesting: Dr. Franklin's Island by Ann Halam (the YA pen name of SF novelist Gwyneth Jones).

We were flying to Quito, the capital of Ecuador. We were going to stay in a hotel there, before traveling overland to the rain forest base. It'll be all right once we've settle in, I told myself (hoping it was true). We'll be working, helping the scientists, learning about the wildlife. It's easy to talk to people when you're doing something together. Back at home, my brother and my parents were getting ready to go to Jamaica for their summer holiday. My brother thought I was mad to prefer going on a science trip, and I was beginning to agree with him. But I wasn't going to get downhearted. Even if I didn't make any friends, even if I never had a single conversation beyond "could you pass the graph paper" or whatever, this had to be th trip of a lifetime. Meeting real scientists, seeing the Galápagos . . .
~ Dr. Franklin's Island, by Ann Halam

Three children survive a plane crash on an isolated island, and find that they are not alone. There is a military research facility manned by a Dr. Franklin, who uses genetic engineering to create human-animal hybrids. If the plot sounds familiar, that's probably because the novel is loosely based on H.G. Well's Island of Doctor Moreau. As Halam explained in an interview with her publisher:

Dr. Franklin’s Island is sort of an argument with The Island of Dr. Moreau. When I started thinking about my transformation story, The Island of Dr. Moreau immediately came to mind and set the scene on the “desert island”–the isolated place where the mad scientist could do his will, undisturbed by public opinion. When I reread the story, I found I didn’t like the ideas in it at all. This is different from not liking the story. I think it’s a great story, but I didn’t like H. G. Wells’s ideas about animal nature versus human nature. Part of what happens in Dr. Franklin (though this isn’t Dr. Franklin’s intention!) is the wonder and joy of being reunited with the animal kingdom, rediscovering the delight of being an animal, at home in the living world–but still this special kind of self-aware, conscious animal that is a human being. H. G. Wells comes to a very different conclusion about his “beast men.” I won’t try to explain it; read the story and make your own judgment. In short, I like H. G. Wells’s terrific stories, but I’m not much of an admirer of his opinions.

The (long) Wikipedia summary of the plot makes it sound both horrific and thought-provoking, and Lisa DuMond at SF Site gave it a very positive review.

Some of Halam's other novels also have biological themes. In Siberia, a young girl and her mother are living in a prison camp, where the mother secretly creates and harvests animal life using a "Lindquist kit". From Bookslut's review:

At some point in Siberia’s future, the world has lost touch with nature and become a cold wasteland separated by domed cities. The people in the cities are distanced from those who live in the wilderness, and all of them are distanced from nature. Animals are now raised in fur farms (dogs, cats, everything) and wild animals are rare. Sloe’s parents were city scientists who opposed the government’s decisions concerning the destruction of wild animal DNA. After her father was arrested and killed by the government she and her mother are to a camp; a camp that sounds a lot like a Soviet era gulag. It is there that she learns about her mother’s “magic” and the compressed DNA she smuggled out of the city and now safeguards until they can one day escape to the safety of the almost mythical city on the other side of the forest. This compressed DNA, referred to as Lindquists in the book and named by Halam in honor of real life MIT biologist Susan Lindquist, is able to express itself in many forms. In essence, Sloe and her mother have the future of every wild animal in the small kits they hide beneath the floor of their Siberian hut. What will become of these kits after Sloe is sent away to school and her mother is arrested by the government authorities for teaching her daughter science is the crux of the story. Can Sloe save them and successfully travel to the safety of the northern city, and more importantly, can she learn enough about how to control the DNA so that they can save her from those who wish her harm (and want the DNA).

And Halam's novel Taylor Five is the story of one of the first human clones. From the Amazon.com description:

Taylor Walker seems like any ordinary 14-year-old. Ordinary—if you overlook the fact that she lives on the island of Borneo, on a primate reserve run by her parents, and knows how to survive in the jungle. Obviously, Tay isn’t just like everyone else. But she is like one other person. She’s exactly like one other person. Tay is a clone, one of only five in the world, and her clone mother is Pam Taylor, a brilliant scientist. When rebels attack the reserve, Tay escapes with her younger brother and Uncle, an exceptionally intelligent orangutan. As they flee through the jungle, Tay must look within to find her strength: Pam’s DNA, tempered by Taylor’s extraordinary life. And she looks to Uncle for guidance—for Tay knows that the uncanny bond between Uncle and herself is the key to their survival.

All three novels sound interesting, and I love that the protagonists are all smart resourceful girls. I've added Ann Halam to my reading wish list.

Previously: Free fiction by Gwyneth Jones

Tags:Ann Halam, biology, cloning, genetic engineering

What is a better science movie: Gattaca or Jurassic Park?

2008-05-02T02:01:00.000-07:00

At Seed magazine's Page 3.14 Blog Virginia Hughes has put up a poll up that asks "what is the best science movie?".

About a week ago, ScienceBlogger Randy Olson (documentary filmmaker of "Flock of Dodos" fame) left a comment on Shifting Baselines suggesting that the best way to combat anti-science propaganda like "Expelled" is with a pro-science film festival.
[. . .]
The issue got us thinking about the best (most accurate, highest impact, most compelling) pro-science movies. A quick survey around the Seed offices got us down to a short list of four.

What's a little surprising that three of the four choices - Gattaca, Jurassic Park and Contact - are science fiction. That puts the fourth choice, Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, in an odd position, since it's the only movie on the list that is actually meant to be about science rather than story.

I also think that Jurassic Park - and to a lesser extent Gattaca - are terrible choices since I wouldn't consider either of them to be particularly "pro science". In Jurassic Park the scientists recreated the dinosaurs without thinking through the possibly deadly outcomes of their project. Gattaca is focused on the potential social consequences of human genetic engineering. Neither movie would make me think "science and scientists are a good thing." On the other hand, I think the portrayal of Jody Foster's scientist character in Contact is mostly positive, so that was my vote.

I was trying to think of other movies that would be good additions to the list, and I'm having trouble. Scientists are so often portrayed as arrogant and streetdumb (the opposite of streetwise), and when science is the focus of the movie - particularly bioscience - it's often portrayed as dangerous.

So, readers, do you have any suggestions for movies that portray biologists and bioscience (including genetic engineering, cloning, and biotechnology) both positively and accurately?

You can add your vote to the poll at Page 3.14 blog.

Tags:science fiction, biology

Andromeda Strain Prize Pack Giveaway!

2008-05-01T17:50:00.000-07:00

SciFi Chick is giving away a cool Andromeda Strain prize pack:

The prize package will contain the following items: The Andromeda Strain t-shirt, The Andromeda Strain DVD Collection featuring both the 2008 A&E miniseries and the Oscar-nominated 1971 film, and a copy of The Andromeda Strain novel by Michael Crichton.

Entry is easy: all you have to do is leave a comment on her post (US residents only). The contest ends May 27.

Tags:Andromeda Strain

Splice: Rock and Roll Geneticists and the Horror of Genetic Engineering

2008-04-21T21:10:00.000-07:00

Update: The publicist for Splice has asked me to take the promo image down, so I have. You can see the images at Ain't it Cool News. She also points out that Guillermo Del Toro is the executive producer and that Steve Hoban of Copperheart Entertainment is the producer. Hopefully they'll release some promotional images soon.
--------

Producer Guillermo Del Toro and Director/Writer Vincenzo Natali's latest movie is Splice, which stars Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley as a pair of molecular biologists with more ambition than sense.

Elsa and Clive, two young rebellious scientists, defy legal and ethical boundaries and forge ahead with a dangerous experiment: splicing together human and animal DNA to create a new organism. Named "Dren", the creature rapidly develops from a deformed female infant into a beautiful but dangerous winged human-chimera, who forges a bond with both of her creators - only to have that bond turn deadly.

Nelson Cabral of Bloody-Disgusting.com interviewed Natali, whose description of the main characters makes them sound a bit like computer hackers:

. . . I sort of saw it as the natural evolution of whats happening with computer programming. A lot of really young people do computer programming, they deal with really sophisticated technology, really sophisticated hardware. I’m sure that that is happening currently in the bio-technology field as well. It just seemed like the appropriate thing. On some level, the movie is about deciding to have a family, and what you do with becoming a parent, so it had to be about young people so Clive and Elsa are sort of, as rock and roll geneticists, are ill equipped to become parents, and that’s what makes it exciting to watch them have a mutant kid.

Natali also mentioned the real science that was his inspiration for the movie:

Why splice? Because years ago there was this thing I saw a photo of, its called (something)mouse, it was, by all appearances, a human ear on its back. It actually was a plastic armature under a kind of skin that could be grafted onto human beings. It was such a crazy, shocking weird image that I was inspired to write a story about genetic splicing.

The experiment that Natali is remembering is probably the work of Joseph and Charles Vacanti of the Tissue Engineering & Organ Fabrication Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital. Back in 1997 their photo of a mouse with a human ear-shaped growth on its back made a splash in the popular media. It's no wonder that it caught Natali's attention. He apparently didn't pay much attention to the story attached with the picture, though, because the experiment had absolutely nothing to do with genetic engineering. What the Vacantis and colleagues actually did was form a biodegradable polymer into the shape of a human ear, seed it with cow cartilage cells (bovine chondrocytes), and implant it under the skin of the experimental mice¹. They found that new cartilage formed in the shape of the implant. And it turns out their methodology had immediate real-world applications. They used similar techniques to grow a "shield" in the chest of boy who was born with no cartilage or bone between his skin and heart. They also were able to grow a replacement thumb tip using a scaffold made of coral. It's very cool tissue engineering technology.

It isn't that surprising that Natali thinks that genetic engineering was involved. He may have seen the full page ad in the New York Times placed by the anti-biotechnology group the Turning Point Project, which (according to Wikipedia) showed the picture of the ear-bearing mouse with the description "This is an actual photo of a genetically engineered mouse with a human ear on its back"². The image also made the email chain letter rounds with similarly misleading information.

I've noticed that the term "mutant" is commonly used as shorthand to describe any mal- or unusually-formed animal, even when no mutations or other DNA changes are involved, so it's not such a stretch for people to believe that genetic engineering could be used for something as fantastic as growing an extra ear. Splice taps into the idea that genetic engineering is the can-do-anything science for the 21st century. As Splice co-producer Steve Hoban commented, “If Mary Shelley had been born 200 years later she wouldn’t have written Frankenstein, she would have written ‘Splice’.

Splice is scheduled to be released in 2009. In the mean time, check out Ain't It Cool News for more images of Splice's human-animal hybrid (some NSFW).

1. Cao Y et al. (1997) "Transplantation of Chondrocytes Utilizing a Polymer-Cell Construct to Pruduce Tissue-Engineered Cartilage in the Shape of a Human Ear", Plast Reconstr Surg 100(2):297-302.

2. It's not clear to me if their deception was intentional or the creator of he ad was merely incompetent. Unfortunately advertisements aren't required to be truthful (or issue corrections for inaccuracies), so public perception is influenced by the misleading copy.

Tags:tissue engineering, Tags:genetic engineering,Vincenzo Natali,Splice

How I Proposed to My Wife: An Alien Sex Story

2008-04-17T23:56:00.000-07:00

John Scalzi has posted one of his short stories, "How I Proposed to My Wife: An Alien Sex Story". It's being offered as shareware: you can download it for free, but you are encouraged to make a donation through PayPal or Amazon. Half of the money will be donated to The Lupus Foundation of America.

It's a cute story based on the strange and wonderful biology of reproduction. I think it's definitely worth a small donation.

Download a zipped pdf of "How I Proposed to My Wife: An Alien Sex Story" (instructions for those wishing to donate are included).

Tags:science fiction, sex

Beware the Andromeda Strain!

2008-04-16T19:32:00.000-07:00

And now there was this machine. The machine would not, of course, give the precise order of amino acids. But it would give a rough percentage composition: so much valine, so much arginine, so much cystine and proline and leucine. And that, in turn, would give a great deal of information.

Yet it was a short in the dark, this machine. Because they had no reason to believe that either the rock or the green organism was composed even partially of proteins. True, every living thing on earth had at least some proteins – but that didn't mean life elsewhere had to have it.

For a moment, he tried to imagine life without proteins. It was almost impossible: on earth, proteins were part of the cell wall, and comprised all the enzymes known to man. And life without enzymes? Was that possible?
~ The Andromeda Strain, Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain is a classic in biology-based science fiction. A military satellite crashes in the desert and, before it can be retrieved, almost every inhabitant of the nearby town has been killed by a deadly plague. It becomes clear that the satellite was carrying a virulent extraterrestrial microorganism. Much of the action revolves around a team of scientists in the secret "Wildfire" facility analyzing the microbes - the Andromeda strain - and trying to find a cure. After much experimentation, they finally determine that the Andromeda strain is like no life on Earth, since it's a crystalline organism that contains no proteins, DNA or other nucleic acids - and it can live on human blood! Of course there is more, including an action-packed race to prevent the self-destruction of the facility when the microbes turn to eating plastic. What's unique about the story is that the thriller action doesn't overshadow the lab work. At least that's how it seemed to me when I read the novel as an undergrad.

The 1971 movie version of The Andromeda Strain kept much of the focus on the scientists. It included this somewhat disturbing scene of a rhesus monkey being "killed" (actually briefly asphyxiated with carbon dioxide).

(I'm pretty sure the original movie didn't use "Shock the Monkey" on it's soundtrack.)

On Memorial Day (May 26) A&E will broadcast a new miniseries based on The Andromeda Strain* and produced by Ridley Scott. It stars Benjamin Bratt as Dr. Jeremy Stone, along with Christa Miller, Eric McCormack, Viola Davis, Daniel Dae Kim and Andre Braugher. The trailer certainly makes it look action packed.

There will be a related game on the official web site* starting May 5. There aren't any details, but it looks like it will probably be interactive.
Should we worry about a real-life Andromeda strain? While it seems unlikely to me that microbes adapted to living in cold and airless space would be able to thrive in the warm soup of the human body, there does appear to be a real potential threat from Earthly bacteria that travel with human astronauts. Salmonella bacteria flown aboard the space shuttle were shown to be more virulent when tested after upon their to earth (Pseudomonas and Candida carried on the same flight are still being analyzed). And even if the inside of spacecraft are sterile, it's possible that bacteria will be carried on the outside. Living Streptococcus bacteria were recovered from the camera of the Surveyor 3 probe after three frigid years on the moon. We may end up being our own worst enemy.

* To see the Andromeda Strain web site extras, click Experience the Andromeda Strain on the sidebar. That pops up a Flash-based site that doesn't seem to want to load for me in Firefox, but works just fine in Safari.

(trailer via SF Signal)

Tags:Andromeda Strain, microbiology

The Depiction of Cloning in the Movies

2008-04-15T22:00:00.000-07:00

PodBlack Blog made an interesting post about science in the movies that points to a 2006 study at Biotechnology Australia that focused on cloning in the movies (report PDF). Their concern is that one of the major sources of information on human cloning is the movies, and the way that the science and scientists are portrayed can have a significant influence on public opinion.

They looked at 33 different movies and divided them into five categories:

"Contemporary Social Realism": set in the present or near future, presented as realistic
Example: The Boys from Brazil, Jurassic Park
"Future Social Realism": set in the future, presented as realistic
Example: The Island
"Science Fiction/Fantasy": set in the far future or a distant galaxy
Examples: Neon Genesis Evangelion, Star Trek:Nemesis
Comedy
Examples: Sleeper, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
"Gone and Forgotten": Movies that tanked at the box office or are rarely seen
Examples: The Clones of Bruce Lee, Replikator: Cloned to Kill

The movies were rated for scientific accuracy and their "key message" - whether the science or scientists are evil and the social implications of the cloning. Not surprisingly, they found that the most common message in the movies is that "corporations or scientists operate in their own interests and outside of regulation, and are willing to kill to cover up what they've done." Cloning is portrayed as unnatural, with the moral "mess with nature and it will mess with you."

The best of the bunch science-wise:

	Boys from Brazil (1978), staring Gregory Peck, Laurence Olivier and James Levin, and based on the novel by Ira Levin. Type: Contemporary Social Realism
	Cloned (1997), starring Elizabeth Perkins and Bradley Whitford. This movie is "one of the few films that has a fairly accurate portrayal of he science of cloning." Type: Contemporary Social Realism
	Blueprint (2002). This German film is more focused on the ethical and social issues of cloning, rather than the science. Type: Contemporary Social Realism
	Clone High (2002), an MTV animated series. Type: Comedy
	Anna To the Infinite Power (1982), based on a novel by Mildred Ames Type: Gone and Forgotten
	Creator (1985), starring Peter O'Toole. Type: Gone and Forgotten
	The Cloning of Joanna May (1991), a British Granada Television program, based on the Fay Weldon novel. Type: Gone and Forgotten
	The Third Twin (1997), based on a Ken Follett thriller. Type: Gone and Forgotten

I don't think that it's particularly surprising that the most scientifically-realistic movies are those set in the near future, and have few science-fictional elements other than human cloning (does that make them mundane SF?). Scientific accuracy isn't what makes a box office hit, though. Blockbusters like Jurassic Park and Star Wars: Attack of the Clones end up influencing popular culture simply because so many people have seen them. That's which is why their science is worth discussing, even if it has little basis in real life.

Biotechnology Australia followed up with a second report, "Biotechnology at the Movies", which looks at a wider range of movies, from The Andromeda Strain (1971) to Children of Men (2006). Their conclusion:

"The study concluded that the science was, for the most part, seriously flawed, and that while the films may raise awareness, the quality of public debate on biotechnology is not generally enhanced by its depiction in films."

I'm doubt that will change any time soon, since stories with scientists oblivious to the ethical implications and potentially dangerous consequences of their experiments sell movie tickets.

Tags:science fiction, cloning, movies

Biology in Science Fiction Roundup: April 12 Edition

2008-04-12T23:59:00.000-07:00

Here are some Biology in Science Fiction bits from around the internet:

Books and Comics

Ursula LeGuin talked about science and the fantastic in her review of Salman Rushdie's new fantasy novel The Enchantress of Florence:

Some boast that science has ousted the incomprehensible; others cry that science has driven magic out of the world and plead for "re-enchantment". But it's clear that Charles Darwin lived in as wondrous a world, as full of discoveries, amazements and profound mysteries, as that of any fantasist. The people who disenchant the world are not the scientists, but those who see it as meaningless in itself, a machine operated by a deity. Science and literary fantasy would seem to be intellectually incompatible, yet both describe the world; the imagination functions actively in both modes, seeking meaning, and wins intellectual consent through strict attention to detail and coherence of thought, whether one is describing a beetle or an enchantress. Religion, which prescribes and proscribes, is irreconcilable with both of them, and since it demands belief, must shun their common ground, imagination. So the true believer must condemn both Darwin and Rushdie as "disobedient, irreverent, iconoclastic" dissidents from revealed truth.

The Amazon Omnivoracious blog interviews Scott Sigler about his new novel, Infected.

io9 writes about the new comic book Transhuman.

Television

Evolutionary biologist and noted atheist Richard Dawkins is scheduled to appear in the current season of Dr. Who, playing himself. Presumably Dawkins has received acting tips from his wife Lalla Ward, who played Romana, companion of the Fourth Doctor. If Dawkins isn't your cup of tea, Nature Editor Henry Gee suggests some other "celebrity scientists and not-so-scientists" who might be right for a Dr. Who bit part. The current series premiered in the UK on April 5 on the BBC, and premiers in the US on SciFi on April 18.

David Eick (Bionic Woman producer/Battlestar Galactica writer-producer) is working on a proposed TV series based on PD James' Children of Men.

The new season of ReGenesis has started in Canada, and Eva Amsen of the easternblog blog is writing the Facts Behind the Fiction articles that accompany each episode. Very cool.

Movies

Shock Till You Drop reviews the new I Am Legend DVD, including the bonus feature "Cautionary Tale: The Science of I Am Legend".

Big Picture Big Sound reviews the new GATTACA Blu-Ray DVD, which includes a "featurette" on the science behind genetic engineering. i09 has some GATTACA "behind the scenes" trivia.

The new official "REPO: The Genetic Opera" web site has launched, with music, video and stills. (via Bloody-Disgusting)

The Ruins ("Terror Has Evolved") has a some evil plants, according to io9.

Ain't it Cool News reports on the remake of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.

LiveScience writes about the creatures in 10,000 BC.

Bloody-Disgusting lists "The 10 Worst Things That Could've Been in Brundle's Machine ... Besides a Fly" (ew)

Other

Wired Science has the top 5 real biology concepts in BioShock.

Tags:science fiction, biology

Squidpunk

2008-04-09T23:18:00.000-07:00

The 1980s brought us cyberpunk, which featured computer hackers and crackers, self-aware artificial intelligences and man-machine interfaces. That was followed by biopunk, with its biotech hackers, extreme genetic engineering, and human cloning. So what's the next trend? Squidpunk!

Fiction that unlike New Weird, Steampunk, or Slipstream, is at its core not only about squid, but about the symbolism of squid as color-changing, highly-mobile, alien-looking, intelligent ocean-goers. As a powerful ecosystem indicator, the squid is a potent symbol for environmental rejuvenation. Squidpunk is almost exclusively set at sea and must contain some reference to either cephalopods or to anything that thematically relates to squid, in terms of world iconography and tropes. Squidpunk is never escapist or whimsical. It is always serious and edgy. This combination of a hard punk aesthetic with the fluid propulsion system common to the squid has produced a unique literary hybrid beloved by Mundanes and Surrealists alike.

As this promo video for Ann & Jeff Vandermeer's new anthology demonstrates, squidpunk is ready to conquer the SciFi world!

Wicked awesome!

(Yes, it's taken me more than a week to catch up with my blog reading.)

Tags:squidpunk