© Columbia University Press
Hollywood Science: Movies, Science, and the End of the World
Paper, 272 pages, 40 illus.
ISBN: 978-0-231-14281-6
$18.95
/ £12.95
November, 2007
Cloth, 272 pages, 40 illus.
ISBN: 978-0-231-14280-9
$24.95
/ £16.95
"An entertaining, maybe indispensable guide for film buffs everywhere." — Booklist
"“A grand roundup of technical movie masterpieces... praising scientific accuracy (A Beautiful Mind) and exposing turkeys (Volcano)." — Los Angeles Magazine
"An engaging and fun read." — Claude Lalumière, Locus
"Hollywood Science is great fun. . . I give it two thumbs up!" — David Schneider, American Scientist
"A fascinating read that will have you heading to your local DVD store." — Physics World
"This is a terrific book . . . Essential." — CHOICE
"Hollywood Science is a treat for anyone who looks from their television set to the Moon." — John Findura, Fortean Times
"An exceptionally accessible book, Hollywood Science provides a very good catalog of the ways Hollywood has used and abused science." — Neil Easterbrook, SFRA Review
"The approach taken by Sidney Perkowitz is ideal and can accommodate science subfields such as cosmology, genetic engineering, volcanology, and robotics. I believe this book will be very valuable to bridging the gap between scientists, general readers, and non-science students. The book has great appeal for general readers and, in my opinion, will be a useful course book for college level courses in science and film. For the most part, the book is highly readable, provocative, and will be just plain fun to read for both general readers and college students." — Brian Schwartz, Vice President for Research and Sponsored Programs, director of the NSF-supported Science and the Arts Program, and professor of physics at Brooklyn College
"Sidney Perkowitz's rollicking account of the encounter of science and the movies is just fun, from beginning to end. All of the ways Hollywood has dreamed up for your and my destruction, all of the alien, bug-eyed-monsters you want (and some you didn't even know existed) are contained in this marvelous romp through Hollywood's weird science." — Roald Hoffmann, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, author of Same and Not the Same
"In this engaging tour of science in the movies, Sidney Perkowitz disentangles fact from fantasy, explores stereotypes of the eccentric or evil scientist, and shows how sci-fi movies express our deepest hopes and fears about where technology is taking us. Essential reading for any movie buff." — Evan Hadingham, senior science editor, NOVA
"There are many good books on the science fiction film but hardly any on the science of science fiction films. When a distinguished scientist like Sidney Perkowitz decides to write one, we had better pay attention." — David A. Cook, author of A History of Narrative Film, Fourth Edition
"An engaging appreciation of both the delightful and the dubious in one of our favorite pastimes, the science fiction film." — Greg Bear, Hugo and Nebula award-winning author
"Sidney Perkowitz provides us with an interesting and very useful study of movies that have a science thrust. Public science literacy in this age of climate peril and terrorism is the road to sanity and, as Perkowitz shows, the magic of the screen can do so much better." — Leon M. Lederman, Nobel Laureate in Physics