Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
King Kong: the academic review
Time for a quickie before my meeting.
Know what I love about the journals Science and Nature? They’re not above reviewing popular books and movies, provided there’s some shred of scientific relevance. For example, back in ’04, physicist/climatologist Myles Allen reviewed The Day After Tomorrow (Nature 429:347-348), which you’ll remember as the uber-silly global warming movie with decent special effects and Jake Gyllenhaal as the braniac son of Dennis Quaid — the kid who failed calculus because he solved all the test questions in his head and didn’t bother to write them down — and what kind of idiot doesn’t learn in elementary school to show his work? But anyway.
Myles Allen wrote a kickass review. I still refer back to it on occasion to learn style points. I especially like his two-liner, “A medic watching this film would learn as much about climate as I would learn about cardiology watching ER — not nothing, but I would prefer the surgeon standing over me with a scalpel, or the politician pondering my petrol taxes, to have had some additional training. So I find the fuss about the film’s possible impact on climate policy rather disturbing.”
I gotta say, it’s fun getting the skinny from folks who know:
A tidal wave could indeed hit New York, albeit one more likely induced by a submarine landslip than a gigantic storm surge. Strange things do happen in the eyes of hurricanes, although to get stratospheric temperatures at sea level you have to be fairly creative with your thermodynamics.
Thus it was with eager anticipation that I read zoologist Guy Cowlishaw’s review of Peter Jackson’s King Kong (Science 311:1714). As scientist-film critics go, Cowlishaw may lack Myles Allen’s snarkiness, but he makes up for it in juicy academic tidbits:
The discovery of a giant gorilla on such a remote island is not as far fetched as it might seem (although, admittedly, Skull Island’s biogeographic position suggests that a giant orangutan would have been more likely). Island gigantism is a well documented phenomenon, exemplified by species such as the moa and komodo dragon, and giant island primates have existed until quite recently. One genus of extinct lemur, Archaeoindris, exceeded the size of modern-day gorillas and only disappeared a thousand years ago, after people first arrived on Madagascar.
I learned a few other neat things from Cowlishaw, such as the fact that the largest ape that ever lived was Gigantopithecus blacki. “Somewhat smaller than Kong, it too ranged in the tropical forests of Asia, in coexistence with Homo erectus.” You can learn more about Gigantopithecus blacki at this site, which includes a cool image comparing Gigantopithecus with King Kong and modern gorillas.
These occasional reviews are so much fun, it makes me wonder whether there might be a successful niche for this sort of thing — a monthly magazine printing not only book and movie reviews, but also restaurant reviews by food scientists, nutritionists, or botanists; reviews of television commercials by cognitive psychologists; automotive reviews by engineers, and so forth. (I would love to hear a thermodynamicist talk about hybrid cars.)
Just a thought.
D.
Doug, if you start it up, I’ll happily sign up for a lifetime subscription.
And an ectoplasmacist to talk about ghosts…
The cog psys and commercials would be a never-ending source of amusement. Sorry I came across this months too late, but I’ll keep my eye out for these sorts of reviews in the future (I usually just zap to the article of interest in my TOC alert).