B Movies and Bad Science @ The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

If you are going to be in or near downtown L.A. tomorrow afternoon, you might want to check out the "B Movies and Bad Science" film festival at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

Join members from the Museum's history and science staff for a light-hearted exploration of the “science” behind some of Hollywood's creature features. You will discover what makes these creatures and plots implausible in reality, and get to see some of their “real life” counterparts in the Museum's collection. In “Tarantula” (1955), the title's antagonist embarks on a zealous feeding frenzy – but NHM entomologist Brent “the Bug Guy” Karner will calm the audience's nerves.

More details:
Date: Sunday, August 10, 2008
Time: 2:00 PM
Place: Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
900 Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90007
Cost: Free

The program, which is being put on by the museum's Entomology Department, continues on continues on August 24.

"In “Them” (1954), giant ants run wild in the Southwest, then move to the L.A. sewer system for a climactic battle royale. Entomology Curator Brian Brown is on hand to talk about ants and other insects."

And, of course you should check out the other exhibits at the museum while you are there.

(If you want to look smart before you go, read Michael C. LaBarbera's The Biology of B-Movie Monsters first.)

Tags:science fiction, B movies

Fantastic Contraption: The Interface Between Man and Machine

Device, an art gallery in La Jolla, opens a new show tomorrow: the Fantastic Contraption Group Exhibition, which explores the interface between animals and machines.

The exhibited artists include Ashley Wood, Christopher Conte, D. Hwang, Eduard Anikonov, Eric Joyner, Greg Brotherton, HR Giger, Joey Vaiasuso, John U Abrahamson, Kazuhiko Nakamura, Mike Libby, Nemo Gould, Stephane Halleux, Theo Kamecke, Viktor Koen, Wayne Martin Belger, William B Hand and Zoran Milivojevic. Even if you won't be able to visit the exhibition, it's worth spending some time browsing through the artists' web sites for some truly beautiful - and sometimes disturbing - works. I especially like Mike Libby's "Insect Lab", in which he combines gears and other machine parts with insects.

There's also a companion book (shown at right).

The opening reception is Saturday, July 19 from 6-9pm and the show runs through September 2.

(via Make)

Tags:Device Gallery, art

Aliens at the Montreal Science Centre

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

"Science of Aliens" Lecture at the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle

If you happen to be in the Seattle area on August 8th, you might want to check out the Pop Culture Talk at Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum.

Topic: "The Science of Aliens"

Speaker: Dr. Tom Daniel, the Joan and Richard Komen Endowed Chair of Biology, University of Washington.

Daniel received his BS and MS at the University of Wisconsin, a PhD at Duke and was the Bantrell Postdoctoral Fellow in Engineering Sciences at Caltech until 1984 when he joined the University of Washington. He is the proud recipient of the University of Washington 1989 Distinguished Teaching Award and the 2001 Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award.

Time and Place: JBL Theater, 7pm
Cost: Free for EMP|SFM members, $5 for the public.
RSVP: 206-770-2702

Other upcoming live events:

July 17th (tomorrow!): Six Summer Evenings of Science Fiction 2007 Reading Series - Patrick Nielsen Hayden

Patrick Nielsen Hayden is a senior editor at Tor Books and the editor of the influential, award-winning Starlight anthology series. A witty, savvy observer of the business side of science fiction, he possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of the field's history. He will be interviewed by Nebula Award-winning writer Eileen Gunn, author of the short story collection Stable Strategies and Others.

July 24: Six Summer Evenings of Science Fiction 2007 Reading Series - Samuel R. Delany

Samuel R. Delany is arguably the most daring, wide-ranging, word-drunk, idea-besotted writer of science fiction and fantasy that the United States has ever produced. In his 45-year professional career, he has extensively explored issues of language, gender, race, sexuality, power and otherness. Author of Dhalgren, Babel-17, and numerous novels, stories, and critical and philosophical works including his new novel Dark Reflections, he never fails to deliver a dynamic evening. Delany has won numerous national and international awards including the Hugo and Nebula, and was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2002. Delany is Clarion West's 2007 Susan C. Petrey Fellow.

The current exhibitions at the Science Fiction Museum and Experience Music Project are:

Out of this World: Extraordinary Costumes from Film and Television
June 16, 2007 – September 30, 2007

Sound and Vision: Artists Tell Their Stories
February 28, 2007 (permanent collection)

Disney: The Music Behind the Magic
November 4, 2006 – September 9, 2007

Alien Encounters
September 10, 2006 – November 4, 2007

Image: Detail from cover of Jack Vance's The Dragon Masters by artist Jack Gaughan, 1962. Image from the Science Fiction Museum's Alien Encounters exhibit.

Tags:science of aliens, Science Fiction Museum, Tom Daniel