Close Encounters

In this episode of "Popcorn Science," we discuss the 1902 film Le Voyage dans la Lune. Topics Science Gripes (5:36) Space gun? "Raspberry jam" problem 600 km long gun Pressure suits, life support? Breathable air? Snow? Aliens? Anthropomorphic... everything? Return trajectory... by falling off a cliff. Two solar eclipses? SCIENCE Shine (21:30) Academic Dress Man in the Moon Mythology Ice and caves on the Moon! Celebration parade. Earth rise What did we know about the Moon in 1902 (36:00) Robert Hook (1665): Moon made of rock, modified by volcanism. No atmosphere, limb darkening Did not know what process made the craters. Did not know how the moon was formed. Of It's Time (41:36) Ratings (49:30) References La Voyage dans la Lune (1902) Gerald Bull - Behind the Bastards Podcast Project Harp

In this episode of "Popcorn Science," we discuss the 1996 film Independence Day. Topics Science Gripes (7:00) Infecting alien spacecraft with MacOS virus? Fatal case of hubris 90 billion light-years (10:20) What is Jeff Goldblum's job? Smart people can do anything instantly. Can a laser destroy a city? (14:45) Mothership, size of Enceladus, 25x density of Fe (17:15) Tidal problems (18:30) Outrun an explosion in a plane... nope. How does sunlight and seasons work? (24:19) Medical nonsense (26:23) Science Shine (29:22) Moon Plaque (31:25) Aliens like the earth since it is habitable (32:30) Ejecting at zero speed, zero altitude. Area 51 Line of sight (39:02) Of It's Time (43:02) Ratings (55:03) References Independence Day (1996)

In this episode of "Popcorn Science," discuss the 2013 film Gravity.

In this episode of "Popcorn Science," discuss the AppleTV show Pluribus. Topics Science Gripes (6:40) Genetic code from the stars? (7:07) Disease Transmission: fast and slow (8:48) How does the virus do what it does? (15:00) Information Density / Communication Bandwidth (17:40) Science Shine (19:38) VLA! Signal! (20:00) Repetition, rule out local PWM Base4... DNA... er RNA! USAMRIID (22:40) Lab rat protocol Balanced centrifuge! Extras with lab experience Rat Science (29:54) Simple Machine: Lever (30:58) Kepler-22 (32:24) Signal Strength (36:10) Of It's Time (41:45) Ratings (57:14) References Pluribus Vince Gillian X-Files: Je Souhaite (S7E21) X-Files: Roadrunners (S8E4) USAMRID The Hot Zone Kepler-22

In this episode of "Popcorn Science," discuss the 2026 film Project Hail Mary

In this episode of "Popcorn Science," we discuss the 2015 film The Martian

In this episode of "Popcorn Science," discuss the 1989 film The Abyss

In this episode of "Popcorn Science," discuss the 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind

God creates dinosaurs, God destroys dinosaurs. God creates Man, Man destroys God. Man creates podcasts. Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth. In this episode of "Popcorn Science," discuss the 1993 film Jurassic Park Topics Science Gripes (5:30) DNA from mosquitoes = impossible. Half life is too short. Humans cannot produce lysine either, we're alright. Not "billions of strands" in a drop of blood. T-Rex, from brain casts: Good sense of smell, vision, and hearing... sitting still not a good strategy. Velociraptors: not so big, not so fast. Humans can probably outrun dinosaurs (19:15) $112k/yr. Enough for fieldwork? What do dinosaurs sound like? Mating tortoises. Science Shine (27:34) Dinosaurs related to birds, checks out. Animals fail to show up at the safari ride. Cloning is a thing, sequencing older samples produce good science Mosquitoes did exist contemporaneously with dinosaurs. Chicxulub impact described well Dinosaur gizzards / gastroliths. Sex switching does happen in some species. Chaos Theory Of it's time (40:39) What could have been James Cameron: Dark Jurassic Park Jim Carey as Malcolm? Groundbreaking CGI, but also practical effects. Clothing is firmly rooted in the 90s CRTs and floppy disks, adjusted refresh rates. "That's not what unix looks like". This was an actual unix system called IRIX running a real program called fsn ("File System Navigator for cyberspace"). 90s hacker tropes and fat shaming John Williams: Wrote the score for everything in the 70s, 80s and 90s Ratings (54:44) References Jurassic Park (1993) Amplification and sequencing of DNA from a 120–135-million-year-old weevil Chicxulub Gastrolith Chaos Theory File System Navigator