Comments on: How physicist Jim Kakalios invented a math equation for the new Spider-Man movie

By: Iain Bryden

Iain Bryden — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 15:47:00 +0000

Maybe the scientist could make a video using BOTH audio channels.

By: chaopoiesis

chaopoiesis — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 19:45:00 +0000

The tobacco product placement at the end… nice touch. Classic Hollywood.

By: Ted Brzinski

Ted Brzinski — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 15:48:00 +0000

I’ve had the pleasure of hearing Jim talk at the APS March Meeting several times, and it’s always fascinating and fun. As a budding, professional research scientist, I’m glad to have him as a representative to the people who create popular culture. As a nerd, with a passion for things like comic books, movies, and television, I’m thrilled to have him as a representative to the scientific community.

After I wrote the paragraph above, I did a quick google search for his march meeting talks. Instead I found this convocation speech he gave in 2009, which sums up the quality I tried to convey above:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72XAXiyXf-k

Keep it up, Jim!

By: jimkakalios

jimkakalios — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 03:59:00 +0000

The production designer for Buckaroo Banzai was Mike Riva, who was also the production designer for THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and both IRON MAN movies. A great artist and a prince of a man – he tragically passed away recently while working on Quentin Taratino’s new film. A small, select group of people are responsible for the look of many classic movies – a role one often doesn’t think about that has a large impact.

I asked Mike once, why there was a watermelon in the lab in BUCKAROO BANZAI. He just chuckled.

By: Roy Trumbull

Roy Trumbull — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 03:21:00 +0000

There was a summer program about Sci-Fi on TV and in the movies at UC’s Lawrence Hall of Science. We saw lots of clips. Then as a treat we saw a new movie before it was released. A staffer had been a consultant. You can imagine the advanced degrees of the parents of some of the kids in the audience. When it was revealed in the titles that the hero was a neurosurgeon, a rock star, and leader of a do-good organization consisting mostly of children, we roared with laughter. The movie was Buckaroo Banzai.

By: Being Geek Chic

Being Geek Chic — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 16:49:00 +0000

Thanks for writing about this! Jim is the coolest dude…

By: bzishi

bzishi — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 10:16:00 +0000

Just solve a Bessel equation. It will look impressive and cover several blackboards. Nobody without a MS or Ph.D in math or science will know the difference (except perhaps some smart applied math and physics students). Spherical Bessel functions are especially intimidating.

By: Glen Able

Glen Able — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 09:38:00 +0000

Dammit! I knew I should’ve stuck with pointing out that if you have a little nodule gizmo that’s critical for preventing an AI from taking over your brain and making you insane, then you shouldn’t place it where a stiff breeze could knock it off…

By: billstewart

billstewart — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 05:20:00 +0000

Kakalios was on NPR’s Science Friday this afternoon, and it was very nice to hear that this Spiderman movie was trying to do the physics better. The first one was just a mess, in terms of watching Spidey and the Bad Guys bounce off walls in ways that didn’t even correspond well to Cartoon Physics, much less what Actual Physics would do if it had loopholes for superheroes.

By: Nadreck

Nadreck — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 03:25:00 +0000

The topic of SF TV show advisors reminds me of Ben Bova’s famous quote about his time in this role on that paragon of Canadian SF TV “The Starlost”: ‘I explain the science involved to the writes and they ignore me.’

By: retchdog

retchdog — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 02:32:00 +0000

maybe “0.23″ is nonsense (but it is at least around the right order of magnitude), but an eigenvalue in electron volts is perfectly fine quantum physics.

By: s2redux

s2redux — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 23:26:00 +0000

I invented a complicated-looking equation relating to cell regeneration and human mortality for The Amazing Spider-Man, and all I got was this lousy tie.

By: bazzargh

bazzargh — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 21:37:00 +0000

In case you blinked and missed the other physicist’s name, he’s Boris Shklovskii, and the paper mentioned is “A simple derivation of the Gompertz law for human mortality”, here (only 1 page of very easy maths!) :
http://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio/0411019

By: Lemoutan

Lemoutan — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 21:22:00 +0000

If he has one point twennyone gigawatts, sure.

By: Grahamers2002

Grahamers2002 — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 21:13:00 +0000

Yes, yes. BUT, can Spider-Man do the Kessel run in under 12 parsecs?

By: Glen Able

Glen Able — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 21:07:00 +0000

Yay, this makes up for the bit in Spider-Man 2 where Peter’s answer to “what’s the eigenvalue?” is “.23 electron volts”.

[edit: oops, didn't know Spider-Man was written with a hyphen]

By: Bill Sodeman

Bill Sodeman — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 21:05:00 +0000

Excellent video! When Dr. K showed the cover of his book, I realized I had a copy 2 meters away from me, on my bookshelf.