5. Dr. Strangelove
Played by Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Movie Science
Peter Sellers had lots of fun with this role, echoing Rotwang in Metropolis in his uncontrollable frenzy as the disturbed Strangelove. He is an ex-Nazi weapons expert who now acts as advisor to the U.S. President in the War Room. The movie wittily parodies the idea of MAD (mutually assured destruction) in the atom bomb age. The Soviet Union has invented a device that will automatically destroy Earth if nuclear weapons are sent to Soviet targets. It’s called the Doomsday Machine. Surely, this couldn’t come true?
Real Science
This very ‘Doomsday Machine’ was proposed in the 1950s by an American think tank. Envisaged along the lines of the movie plot, hydrogen bombs would destroy the world, linked to a computer command. Furthermore, the Soviet Union succeeded in inventing a Doomsday Machine, known as the Perimetr in 1984. We can, infact, destroy our world, many times over.
4. Dr. Moreau
Played by:
Charles Laughton in Island of Lost Souls (1933)
Burt Lancaster in The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977)
Marlon Brando in The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996)
Movie Science
Based on a novel by H.G.Wells, the movies tell the story of a scientist’s desire to create his own race of human and animal hybrids. Moreau’s experiments on animals are cruel and he succeeeds in making animal hybrids with human DNA. It’s another morality tale about tampering with nature.
Real Science
In 1998, a human hybrid clone was created from a cell in a man’s leg and a cow’s egg. After twelve days, it was destroyed. Transplanting organs from one species to another is known as xenotransplantation and humans have received pig heart valves successfully. Furthermore, researchers have created pigs with human genes. The goal is to have a breeding program to supply transplants to humans for livers, hearts, and kidneys. Some people are ethically opposed to xenotransplantion.
3. The Fly
Played by:
David Hedison as Scientist Andre Delambre in The Fly (1958)
Brett Halsey as Scientist Philippe Delambre in Return of the Fly (1959)
George Baker as Scientist Martin Delambre in Curse of the Fly (1965)
Jeff Goldblum as Scientist Seth Brundle in The Fly (1986)
Eric Stolz as Scientist Martin Brundle in The Fly II (1989)
Movie Science
Various movie adaptations came from the original short story by George Langelaan, first published in an issue of Playboy in 1957. Teleportation is another holy grail for scientists. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenbury predicted it would be a routine way of life one day, but the instant transfer of matter proves problematic for the protagonists in The Fly films. The scientists start off as rational beings but getting your DNA mixed up with a fly is bound to fry your brain. A note to would be teleporters: make sure there isn’t a fly in there with you at the moment of teleportation, unless you really like to regurgitate your meals.
Real Science
The consensus amongst scientists is that teleportation is probably impossible; the only hope being that a wormhole (a shortcut through time and space) is discovered. This would enable matter to travel at the speed of light. There have been small successes, however. A team of physicists at the California Institute of Technology were successful in teleporting a photon (a particle of energy that carries light) in 1998. It travelled through 3.28 feet of coaxial cable and made a replica. The original photon did not survive. More recently, teams at the Australian National University and at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen in Denmark have teleported a laser beam. It’s all a long way from Captain Kirk asking Scotty to beam him up.
2. Dr. Jekyll
Played by Various Actors in Several Movies, Most Notably:
John Barrymore in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920)
Frederick March in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
Spencer Tracy in Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1941)
Movie Science
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is an1886 novella by Robert Louis Stevenson. The author was interested in the dual nature of human beings. In an effort to understand evil, the kindly Dr. Jekyll drinks a potion and transforms into Mr. Hyde, a nasty man of violence. The special effects were quite a challenge in the early movies.
Real Science
Clearly, drugs change one’s mood temporarily but studies have also shown that some drugs can change one’s personality on a permanent basis. Some people claim that LSD and mescaline have altered their personality and reports state cases of patients suffering side effects from psychiatric drugs, leading to violence and suicide.
1. Dr. Frankenstein
Played by Various Actors in Several Movies, Most Notably:
Colin Clive in Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Basil Rathbone in Son of Frankenstein (1939)
Cedric Hardwicke in the Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)
Peter Cushing in seven movies (1957 to 1974)
Gene Wilder in Young Frankenstein (1974)
Movie Science
The movie adaptations depict Dr. Frankenstein as a mad scientist, but the Frankenstein story first appeared in a gothic novel by Mary Shelley in 1818. The doctor uses electricity to give life to the Monster, put together from various corpses. Ever since, people have asked if we could create a human being in that way. Should we interfere with nature? Should we play God? It always ends in tears for the Monster.
Real Science
Our real life attempts at making life have been confined to cloning. The first cloned mammal, a mouse, made an appearance in 1986 and Dolly the Sheep became famous ten years later as the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell. It’s hoped that this research will help to cure disease in humans and it may be possible to harvest organs from clones. Many people are morally opposed to human cloning and some countries have signed a ban. There are scientists who say it it will inevitably happen. Five mature, cloned human embryos were created from adult skin cell DNA in 2008. They were destroyed. We don’t know if they would have deveolped successfully.
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