CUNY TV's Science Goes to the Movies

Lisa Beth Kovetz & Emily Rice of CUNY's Macaulay Honors College dig into black holes, brown dwarfs and Star Trek's "Strange New Worlds!"

In the climate-change allegory, "Don't Look Up" the media failed to report the reality of an oncoming comet. Are we doing the same with our ever wilder weather? CUNY's Prof. Jimmy Booth; CUNY Alums Dr. Veeshan Narinesingh and Joe Rao weigh in.

Prof. and Chef, Mark D'Alessando, Dir. of Culinary Arts, at CUNY's Kingsborough Community College joins us to talk about Hulu's "The Bear," why the science of baking can become so obsessive, and why community colleges have the best culinary arts degree.

Dolphins are often as creative and personable in real life as they are on the screen. Author and Prof. Diana Reiss Director of the Animal Behavior and Conservation Program at CUNY's own Hunter College joins us to explain why

HBO's "The Guided Age" details NYC's antique, ultra-rich, without giving much thought to the city that made it possible. Joining us to talk about what lies under our city, is triple CUNY alumna Alyssa Loorya of Chrysalis Archaeological Consultants.

Author and UConn Prof. Betsy McCoach joins us in a discussion about "Raising Dion" and gifted children.

Dr. Robin Rosenberg, The Clinical Psychologist Who Wrote Your College Text Book, “Abnormal Psychology,” And The Uber-Editor Of The Oxford University Press, “Superhero” Series Discusses Anakin Skywalker And Attachment Disorders.

How have attitudes and treatments for HIV changed over the decades? CUNY Prof. Denis Nash discusses past & current HIV treatment and cures and the circa 1980 attitudes of "It's A Sin" (BBC) versus the realities of Jared Frieder's 2022 film "Three Months"

Dr. Stuart Firestein, Columbia U. neuroscientist, author of “Ignorance” and “Failure” joins us to discuss to compare and contrast murder mysteries with the public perception of how science gets done!

Fans of Frank Herbert's “Dune” know “The Litany Against Fear” by heart and repeat to themselves in times of strife. To talk about other things you might do in a stressful situation, we spoke to neuroscientist, Wendy Suzuki, author of “Good Anxiety.”

In “HouseBroken,” Lisa Kudo's poodle, “Honey” psychoanalyzes the pups who come to her couch for group therapy. At the Hunter Thinking Dog Center, Sarah Elizabeth Byosiere studies the behavior and cognition of domestic dogs.

Author/Actor Henry Winkler and neuroscientist Dr. Sally Shaywitz (Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity) discuss the underlying causes of dyslexia through the lens of the BBC TV series, “Hank Zipzer,” based on Winkler's semi-autobiographical novels.

On the next Science goes to the Movies, we're looking at the science of the Expanse with Charles Liu, Karen Masters and Allen Lui, three astrophysics who wrote the book on the key ideas, inventions, and destinations that inspired Space Travel.

In the movie “Dune” the Ornithopters move like real dragonflies, but could a machine that size and weight ever really move like that? Our guest, Prof. Jane Wang of Cornell's Department and Physics and Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering explains.

In the fun flick “Free Guy” Ryan Reynolds plays a bit of intelligent computer code that achieves sentience, SORT OF. CUNY Prof. Anita Raja explains the real life limits of machine learning and what parts of Blue Shirt Guy could actually be true.

In the 1860's people believed the weather was too chaotic to ever be predicted, but today our smart phones update weather conditions to the hour. CUNY's own Dr. James Booth discusses the film “The Aeronauts,” meteorology, and our changing climate.

In X-Men or Jupiter's Legacy, genetically altered superheroes push the limits of human biology to save the world. IRL, geneticist, Dr. Christopher E. Mason, thinks we should alter our biological limits to save our species.

In the movie, "Uncle Frank" after years of psychic abuse both large and small the titular Uncle Frank finds it in his heart to forgive his family. And that's great for a movie. But how does it translate to real life?

When the 2-DASH-1B surgical robot attached Luke Skywalker’s new arm, our collective creative minds were blown, and visions of autonomous robotic surgery begin appearing across the sci fi spectrum! A look what’s happening in real robotic surgery!

SciFi money is either the utopian “plenty for all” or worlds of shortages and the very, very powerful crushing everyone else. With that in mind we're look at the GME Short Sale that became a short squeeze for some wealthy hedge fund investors.

One of Star Trek: Discovery’’s most exciting, fictional advancement is something called “programmable matter," and in real life at the City University of New York, Prof Vinod Menon one of our favorite guests - is working on making it so!

CUNY's own Dr. Charles Liu discusses the difference and overlaps between the scientific/ mathematical concept of the multi-verse, and the pop-culture/art vision of the multi-verse.

Two fantasy extremes are quickly becoming a part of our IRL culture: Medicine in Star Trek - Drinking Westeros! in Dr. Mark D’Agostino (Co-Founder) and Bluestone Psychiatry moved their practice to telemedicine long before the quarantine hit

Were most people in the European Middle Ages really as stupid as Daniel Radcliffe’s Miracle Workers character Prince Chauncley? In his new book "The Clock and the Camshaft” Forbes writer, John W. Farrell delves into Dark Ages ingenuity.

Remember back, when everyone was taking the “Bird Box Challenge” trying to do complex tasks while blindfolded and sometimes alone. Well, fast forward to the Covid 19 quarantine and that fiction is the real-life experience of today’s guest.

CUNY Law Prof., Natalie Chin and working family attorney, Ellyn J. Stein join us to confront misconceptions about the role of real lawyers with a special look at the role of lawyers in social justice movements

On this episode we look at the very moving Steven Gukas film “93 Days,” plus Steven Sodderburgh’s startlingly prescient film “Contagion.” Our guest is Dr. Mark Siddall of the AMNH, curator of the Disease Eradication Exhibition, “Countdown To Zero.”

We’re looking at how two versions of Star Trek starships engines address speed of light limitations as they cross the universe with Dr. Ethan Siegel, theoretical astrophysicist and author.

CUNY’s own Prof. Sebastian Alvarado (Queens College) is back with a look at the Incredible Hulk -- plus real scientists taking the form of superheroes – and one old economist who might be kind of a supervillain.

In this episode, front line, emergency room doctor Larry Wells joins us via Zoom to discuss proper use and fit of protective masks, how and when to wear gloves, and which symptoms should get you going directly to the ER.

A look at Lulu Wang’s, “The Farewell” with CUNY's own Dr. Elsie Jolade, Clinical Professor and Coordinator, at Hunter-Belleview School of Nursing.

Prof. Damian Sciano joins us to explain what Edison, Tesla, and Westinghouse were really fighting over in the movie, “The Current War” and why that old battle still matters to us today.

Clement E. Drummond, Director of Automotive Technology from CUNY’s Bronx Community College explains the cars, the engines, and the speed of the GT40 as seen in the film, “Ford versus Ferrari.”

Professor Sebastian Alvarado of the City University of New York wrote an excellent book called “The Science of Marvel” and we got him to come on the show to explain how we too can make Super Soldier Serum -- maybe.

Adam Higginbotham’s new book, “Midnight in Chernobyl” is a shortlist finalist for the Carnegie Medal -- and for good reason.

John Wick Gets Bullets Right (mostly)!

The Science of Rick and Morty” – because some of Rick’s science is kind of-sort of real-ish.

Did technology change music? Of course it did. In his book, “Capturing Sound How Technology has changed Music” Prof. Katz considers the changes that occurred when technology invaded music.

In the world of Disney logic, the little elephant Dumbo can fly because he has very large ears. We’ve invited a NASA Engineer to explain what it would take to get that elephant into the air and when we can expect our jet packs to arrive.

The vile Lord Voldemort was once a poor, lonely orphan. But then, so was Harry Potter. So, what happened? NYU Langone Psychiatrist Dr. Karen Rosenbaum talks sociopaths and Lord Voldemort this week on Science Goes to the Movies.

In “Transformers,” Decepticons come to Earth and stomp across our planet like they own it. But don’t worry – in real life it takes a lot of work just to teach a robot not to smash itself into a tree.

Sometimes science has to bend a little to make the plot of a movie work better and we don’t want to criticize those choices, but we do want to make fun of them.