Just as you go to get coffee during the unending special features on the Spiderman 2 deluxe DVD, your youngest child asks, “What exactly is ‘the proportional strength of a spider’ anyway?” Or perhaps you’re standing in line to buy tickets for Batman Begins when the thought bobs to the surface of your mind, “How can I use this film to enhance my child’s science education?”
Before the person behind you pokes you in the kidneys, let me help with both questions. Lois Gresh and Robert Weinberg have written The Science of Superheroes, along with a sequel, The Science of Supervillains. The writing is light and the science is outstanding. While fighting the good fight for truth and justice, Gresh and Weinberg tackle biology, astronomy, and physics.
Finally, you’ll be able to discuss E=mc2 over dinner while visions of the Flash race through your children’s heads. If you seek a contemplative silence over your starch and protein, break out the old chestnut about Galileo’s square cubed law. You can lean back with your after-dinner port and announce, “So, when Giant-man doubles in size, his surface area increases fourfold and his volume eightfold. Could this be why Giant-man suffocates and Ant-man stomps arachnid butt?”
Chances are that anyone interested in superheroes, even the cinematic ilk, has latent interest in science. Gresh and Weinberg do answer the spider question, but the webslinger proves a bit disappointing in the science department.
July, 2005