Hollyweird Science

Lighthearted, quirky, and upbeat, this book explores the portrayal of science and technology on both the big and little screen -- and how Hollywood is actually doing a better job of getting it right than ever before. Grounded in the real-word, and often cutting-edge, science and technology that inspires fictional science, the authors survey Hollywood depictions of topics such as quantum mechanics, parallel universes, and alien worlds. Including material from interviews with over two dozen writers, producers, and directors of acclaimed science-themed productions -- as well as scientists, science fiction authors, and science advisors -- Hollyweird Science examines screen science fiction from the sometimes-conflicting vantage points of storytellers, researchers, and viewers. Including a foreword by Eureka co-creator and executive producer Jaime Paglia, and an afterword by astronomer and science fiction author Michael Brotherton, Ph.D., this book is accessible to all readers fromthe layperson to the armchair expert to the professional scientist, and will delight all of them equally.

“Hollyweird Science is written for a broad audience. It has enough depth – by its inclusion of equations, such as those for kinetic energy, the Schwarzschild radius, Wien’s law, length contraction, and time dilation – that it can be used in an introductory physics course or a first-year undergraduate seminar. … Hollyweird Science is an entertaining read for those who enjoy science fiction media and want to know more about the reality behind the cinematic magic.” (Lisa Will, Physics Today, Vol. 69 (9), September, 2016)

“This book looks at the science that is used in Hollywood science fiction film productions, from both the angle of the scientist and the storyteller. … This book is not a light read, but certainly an original and satisfying one. … Overall there is plenty of fascinating and original material for those who might wish to extend their space horizons.” (Odyssey, September, 2016)

“Grazier and Cass are clearly fans of the genre. The media subtleties of heat and temperature, mass and weight, energy, force and power, gravity and radiation are investigated in detail. ... This is a fascinating, informative, and entertaining book. It is well illustrated, well referenced, and extremely thought-provoking. I will look at the media in a new light.” (David W. Hughes, The Observatory, Vol. 136 (1252), June, 2016)

“The reader will quickly appreciate that the book is not just a simple list of cinema bloopers. … book’s details provide enough depth of knowledge to allow the reader to hold their own at lunch time conversations when the topic swings around to the science in the latest show or movie. … From it, you can make up your own mind on just what you’re ready to accept as entertaining and what is just too much expectation by the storyteller.” (Mark Mortimer, Universe Today, February, 2016)

Kevin R. Grazier, Ph.D. was a research scientist for fifteen years at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on the Cassini/Huygens Mission to Saturn and Titan. Still an active researcher, he performs large-scale computer simulations of early Solar System evolution. Grazier served as the science advisor for the film Gravity, and on the television series Eureka, Defiance, Ascension and the Peabody-Award-winning Battlestar Galactica.

Stephen Cass is an Irish science and technology journalist based in New York City. He has been an editor at Discover magazine and MIT Technology Review and has written for outlets such as Popular Science and Nautilus. He has also edited several science fiction anthologies. He is currently geeking it to the max as a senior editor at IEEE Spectrum.