Yesterday I suggested a few book titles and short stories for those interested in chemistry-themed science fiction. In this final entry, I’ll dig up some film and TV suggestions.

In the written word at least, several authors have used chemical concepts as the basis of smart sci-fi. This is much less the case on TV and at the movies. I think this is because books have space to develop themes, and to provide any necessary background information. Sci-fi readers in general are also more receptive to taking on fairly abstract scientific concepts — it is, after all, part of the attraction of the genre. But films and TV need to have an immediate impact on the widest possible audience, and so difficult concepts are often ignored in favour of whizz-bang pyrotechnics and special effects. Not much room for chemistry, then (apart from in the pyrotechnics).

But examples do exist. David Katz’s online list of chemistry-related sci-fi includes a section on films, and I recommend that you take a look. From his selection, a special mention goes to The Man in the White Suit, a British satirical comedy from 1951 about a man who invents a dirt-repellent polymeric fibre. The properties of the fibre and its ramifications for the textile industry drive the entire plot.

Chemistry in television sci-fi is also uncommon, and tends to crop up as an aside, and/or as a bad thing. MacGyver obviously wasn’t science fiction, but chemistry did at least come to the rescue on several occasions — such as when our hero breaks open a lock with ice cubes and a light bulb, makes nylon (!) and extracts vanadium from a poison (I have no idea why or how he does this). I also enjoyed a spoof educational movie that appeared in an episode of The Simpsons: “You said you wanted to live in a world without zinc, Jimmy. Well, now your car has no battery.”

But there’s only one TV sci-fi series that I know of (feel free to correct me) that truly used chemistry as the lynchpin of a plot: Dr Who. In the 1968 story, The Krotons, a race of people known as the Gonds were enslaved by the eponymous aliens. The Krotons prevented the Gonds from learning about chemistry, mostly because the aliens’ Achilles heel was sulphuric acid. But the Doctor teaches the Gonds how to make the acid, which they then use to destroy their overlords. Fanciful and simplistic, I agree, but at least the programme makers attempted to show the importance of chemistry in a sci-fi setting.

So that’s it for my round-up of chemical sci-fi. It’s certainly a fun topic, but I genuinely think that the lack of chemistry in science fiction is a missed opportunity. Perhaps if there was more, it would generate a greater interest and understanding of chemistry in the real world.

Andy

Andrew Mitchinson (Senior Editor, Nature)

Jane Qiu has an interesting interview on Nature News with aquatic ecologist Breck Bowden of the University of Vermont, who is heading up new research looking at what happens when thawing ground in the Arctic begins to fall apart. Here’s an excerpt:

Last week marked the start of a US$5 million project to study the effects of thawing permafrost on ecosystems in the Arctic. Based at the Toolik Field Station in northern Alaska and sponsored by the US National Science Foundation, the project will look at the impact of thermokarsts — the scars and pits left behind as melt water from permanently frozen ground leaks away, and soil and rock collapses in its wake.

The project was inspired by a serendipitous discovery in 2003, says Bowden:

My colleagues and I were flying over the high Arctic in search of research sites. We noted that the Toolik River was brown and muddy, which was odd as it hadn’t rained recently. As we went further upstream, we came to a tiny stream that was washing tons of thermokarst sediments into the river. We were astounded how this tiny feature was influencing the river 40 kilometres downstream. The volume that had been displaced was enough to smother the bottom of the entire river. The sediments would release a lot of nutrients normally locked up in permafrost into freshwater cycles. That’s got to have a significant impact on the ecosystem.

Read the full interview here.

Anna Barnett