Nautilus

Science Is Finally Getting Its Close-up

In case you hadn’t noticed, science is enjoying a renaissance on screen. Not science fiction—that’s always been a silver screen staple—but actual scientists doing actual science. As Nautilus explained in December, in “How We Got from Doc Brown to Walter White,” the fictional scientist, in particular on TV, has evolved from the nutty genius to the trenchant chemist. The same trend is seen on the silver screen. The scientist is no longer the bespectacled sidekick who’d hack the enemy’s defenses or explain why the creature has grown to gargantuan proportions while the hero mows it down with a middy gun.

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