The Biology of B-Movie Monsters

Posted on August 1, 2008 in Filmmaking 360 | 1 Comment

If those giant B-Movie Monsters weren’t unrealistic enough, Michael C. LaBarbera a professor in Organismal Biology & Anatomy, at the College of the University of Chicago, throws more cool water on the “science” of those oversized Hollywood creations.

…Size has been one of the most popular themes in monster movies, especially those from my favorite era, the 1950s. The premise is invariably to take something out of its usual context–make people small or something else (gorillas, grasshoppers, amoebae, etc.) large–and then play with the consequences. However, Hollywood’s approach to the concept has been, from a biologist’s perspective, hopelessly naïve. Absolute size cannot be treated in isolation; size per se affects almost every aspect of an organism’s biology. Indeed, the effects of size on biology are sufficiently pervasive and the study of these effects sufficiently rich in biological insight that the field has earned a name of its own: “scaling.”

— University of Chicago | Read The Full Article