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FACT OR FICTION?

FACT OR FICTION?. How Popular Novelists affect the Scientific Literacy of our Nation By: Whitney Bruce. Michael Crichton. Father of the “techno-thriller” Author of…. PREY.

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FACT OR FICTION?

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  1. FACT OR FICTION? How Popular Novelists affect the Scientific Literacy of our Nation By: Whitney Bruce

  2. Michael Crichton • Father of the “techno-thriller” • Author of…

  3. PREY • There is some real science in MichaelCrichton's tale of a nanotech run amok--along with pure fantasy. Here are a few plot points where fact and fantasy diverge: • SELF-REPLICATING MICROMACHINES • MOBILE SWARMS • EMERGENT BEHAVIOR

  4. FICTION • In Prey, malevolent swarms of micro-robots replicate and move through the air, relying on built-in solar cells with several hours of storage. These predatory swarms exhibit intelligence far exceeding the scientists' efforts exterminate them.

  5. FACT • Of all the diverse nanotech projects under way, the ones that most closely evoke Crichton's drama are lab experiments on ``smart dust.” • Berkeley's Sensor & Actuator Center, is working on devices, which are now about the size of sand grains and contain sensors. • The ultimate goal is to create dust-size particles fitted with silicon intelligence, radios, sensors, and possibly wings. • Such grains could be scattered through buildings--or over a battlefield--to monitor the environment and human activity.

  6. Dan Brown • Science has wonderful potential to control disease, create new fuel supplies, and even allow us to migrate to new worlds. The problem is that every technology is a double-edged sword. The rocket engine that carries the space shuttle can also carry warheads. The medical breakthroughs that can eradicate disease-if misused, can bring about the end of the human race. The question is not whether science will expand to meet man's growing needs, but whether man can mature fast enough to truly comprehend our new power and the responsibility that comes with it.

  7. CERN Laboratory • The CERN Facility is located in Geneva Switzerland. CERN--Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire--is the world's largest scientific research facility. It is located in Geneva Switzerland and employs over 3,000 of the world's top scientists. CERN houses an underground particle accelerator that is over fourteen miles long and stretches all the way into France. CERN's most incredible claim to fame, however, is that they were the first to manufacture something called antimatter...the most volatile substance known to man.

  8. CERN LABROTORIES CROSS-SECTION X-33 SPACE PLANE

  9. ANTIMATTER • Antimatter is the ultimate energy source. It releases energy with 100% efficiency. • Antimatter is 100,000 times more powerful than rocket fuel. A single gram contains the energy of a 20 kiloton atomic bomb--the size of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. • In addition to being highly explosive, antimatter is extremely unstable and ignites when it comes in contact with anything...even air. • It can only be stored by suspending it in an electromagnetic field inside a vacuum canister. • If the field fails and the antimatter falls, the result is a "perfect" matter/antimatter conversion, which physicists aptly call "annihilation."

  10. ANITMATTER • CERN is now regularly producing small quantities of antimatter in their research for future energy sources. • Antimatter holds tremendous promise; it creates no pollution or radiation, and a single droplet could power New York City for a full day. • With fossils fuels dwindling, the promise of harnessing antimatter could be an enormous leap for the future of this planet. • Antimatter technology brings with it a chilling dilemma. Will this powerful new technology save the world, or will it be used to create the most deadly weapon ever made?

  11. What They're Reading on College Campuses • Angels & Demons by DanBrown weighed in at number 8 on the list complied by The Chronicle's list of best-selling books in college campus stores including: • Brown U., Carleton College, Colorado College, Harvard U., Iowa State U., Montana State U. at Bozeman, New Mexico State U. at Las Cruces, New York U. Pennsylvania State U. at University Park, Princeton U. Reed College, Santa Clara U., Stanford U., U. of Houston, U. of Idaho, U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and U. of Washington at Seattle.

  12. CONCLUSION • Some in the scientific community feel betrayed by all the glamorization and “half-writing” of difficult scientific concepts. Many feel that these important and highly intellectual scientific discoveries are being compromised as popular novelists weave summarized bits of science into their plot lines. Crichton addresses these critics in a speech given in 1999 in Anaheim, California saying, • “…however it happens, if you do something to improve reading, Americans will have a clear and direct appreciation of what science can do, and what it has done for them. And then I think when scientists ask for a big supercollider, they’re more likely to get it.”

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