The Biology of Science Fiction Cinema

Featured Speaker: Professor Mark Glassy

Professor Mark Glassy

This four-part course will analyze various twentieth- century science fiction (SF) films to determine whether the biology they incorporate is accurate and to explore such topics as monster physiology, DNA mutations and giant bugs. Questions that will be answered in this course include: What is right and wrong with the biology? What would it take to make the biology actually happen? Could it happen? We will discuss all aspects of biology related to science-fiction films to better understand what is overtly and covertly seen in some of our favorite movies. The focus will be on what separates fact from fiction in them, including the movie laboratories where scientific work is done and the verisimilitude of what is seen in these films. We will also examine how to design your own movie monsters.

July 15: An Overview

This talk will present a general overview of both biology and film analysis to help us understand the course material. One focus will be on DNA and what it can and cannot do. The presentation will also include a brief history of twentieth-century SF films. We will analyze vampire nutrition as an example of what will come in the following three classes.

July 29: Laboratories and Their Sets

This lecture will look at the laboratories seen in SF films, along with a key movie set piece, the microscope. Are the labs seen in these films essential to the plot or just for show? The talk will also discuss the effects of radiation and resulting mutations and how they impact the plots of several SF films. 

August 12: The Creation of Frankenstein

This talk will discuss the biology behind the creation of Frankenstein’s monster, starting with the original Mary Shelley novel and then moving to the “Frankenstein films” of the twentieth century. We will explore the idea that the monster is a “man of many parts,” comparing, in particular, the biology of productions of Frankenstein by Universal Studios and Hammer Film Studios.

August 26: Science Fiction Bugs

This lecture will focus on big-bug films, featuring insects as well as arachnids. How big can bugs really get? It will also discuss our “planet of primates” to illuminate speech and evolution in SF films. Aliens and humans have much in common; we are both made of star stuff and we will discuss this as well.

 

Presenter Biography

Presenter: Mark Glassy is a cancer-research scientist and pharmaceutical-drug inventor by day and an avid science-fiction fan, collector and scholar by night. In his day job, Glassy is a cancer-immunology professor at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, Translational Neuro-Oncology Laboratory. He obtained his Ph.D. in biochemistry from UC Riverside in 1978 and joined UC San Diego in 1980. He has more than 180 publications in the biomedical literature. He has founded several biomedical companies, all focused on cancer, with the latest being Nascent Biotech. As a career highlight, Glassy is the inventor of pritumumab, the first human antibody used to treat a cancer patient.

Coordinator: Mark Stadler