ASCUS goes to...the British Science Festival

At the beginning of September, scientists from across the UK and beyond descended on the city of Newcastle for this year’s British Science Festival. From 7^th to the 12^th September, the city became home to pop-up labs, science street buskers, debates, workshops and exhibitions designed to educate, engage and inspire visitors of all ages and interests.

Much to our great pleasure, artiscience (the discipline of art-science collaboration) seemed to feature prominently in this year’s Festival. From family-friendly arts and crafts to a national conference for artiscience practitioners, visitors were encouraged to explore the role of art-science collaborations in science communication from a public, artistic and scientific perspective.

As this exciting world of artiscience continues to develop and evolve, there is a growing rejection of the somewhat exploitative use of art as an instrumental or illustrative device to interpret science. Rather, an appreciation of the common characteristics of art and science as performative approaches to producing knowledge is beginning to be cultivated.  It was on this theme that the BSF centred its art-science Symposium and Networking Day on the 9^th September, as well as the Festival’s artiscient exhibition Extraordinary Renditions: the cultural negotiation of science.  Hosted by the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, the exhibition featured work by artists from BxNU, a research institute birthed from the partnership between the BALTIC and Northumbria University.  Although unique in their renditions and interpretations, the artists each sought to challenge the all-too-common segregation of specialist knowledge by presenting a rendition of science outside of its traditional and technical parameters.

On the theme of commonalities and the production of knowledge, the work of Chris Dorsett stood out as particularly illuminating. Dorsett’s central aim is to explore, from the perspective of exhibition practice, the interface between contemporary art and museum collections. This focus has produced artworks and curational experiments that rethink museological claims about the construction of knowledge through the display and interpretation of objects. While mulling these heady concepts, Dorsett regularly meets geneticist Volker Straub and David Elliott (both of the Institute of Genetics Medicine, Newcastle University) on their local commuter train. His contribution to Extraordinary Renditions revealed the remarkable value of their seemingly unremarkable conversations.  

In the format of short fragmentary films, Dorsett shared the lessons they had learned about the similarities between DNA and museum collections through their discussions of their work. Museums, like genes, have traffic between storage and display. Museums, like proteins, are created when things they have been inaccessible become expressed. At the heart of their discussions was the role of archival information on the expression of meaning. According to Straub and Elliott, there is a growing appreciation amongst geneticists that the presence of previously labelled ‘junk’ DNA (that is, DNA sequences which do not encode proteins and which have therefore been considered relatively unimportant by scientists) is in fact vital for the meaning of the 'useful' protein-encoding DNA. Likewise, that which has been selected for display in a museum is always informed by the unselected, notes Dorsett. Even the processes of art and science were found to bear a certain degree of similarity. When art is displayed, Dorsett explains, there are the unfathomable remains of what has been left behind before the artist is finished. Similarly, when a scientific paper is written, there are always a mass of data, of experiments and discoveries, which are left unpublished. 

Despite their expertise and distinction, all three were able to explain the intricacies of their work in a manner that was unassuming and understandable. This accessible collision of two worlds usually renowned for baffling lay audiences with jargon and complexities was a refreshing and inspiring experience. What’s more, the willingness of Dorsett, Straub and Elliott to lay aside technical terminologies and bring themselves to a common level of understanding has facilitated the production of new knowledge that neither their science nor art alone would have achieved.

It seems there is a lot to be gained from the sacrifice of our linguistic barricades. And it seems it is true that the collaboration of artists and scientists can do much more than illustrate existing knowledge. There are so many new insights to be found on common ground.

ASCUS Goes to... Ecstatic Arc

Robbie Thomson's 'Ecstatic Arc' is a superbly executed marriage between sound design, electro-acoustic composition, sculpture, set-design and visual art to name only a few branches of the arts the project draws from. This performance is not one for the faint hearted, and is sure to divide the opinion of the audience for the remainder of its residence here at the Summerhall venue.

Image courtesy of <http://sonic-a.co.uk/ecstatic-arc/>

Composing the score in a digital audio workstation, Thomson is able to export the music as a MIDI signal, which is used as an impulse generator to trigger the light show and electrical bursts of the Tesla coil in real-time during the performance. This technique forms the crux of the performance, sparking pure blue flashes and bursts of light which cast unnerving shadows across the industrial set, formed from a collection of Thomson's contorted, animalistic kinetic sculptures.

The combination of visual effects and the intensity of the digital score is spectacular, with deafening sub-bass likely to appease even the most hardened electronic music fans in its ability to leave the variety of stage props quivering in its wake. The sporadic movements and acoustic sounds produced directly from the set's kinetic sculptures bring a more organic element to the digital soundtrack. Increasing in intensity the erratic motions and sounds build the composition from meek beginnings to a veritable full-scale sonic warfare launched upon the audience, who are left mesmerised by the dance of the Tesla coil's plasma arcs.

The Ecstatic Arc experience is rooted in its primal, visceral exploration of artistic media. Like the angular, glistening sculptures, the digital score is not rounded and 'normalised' in its form or aesthetic. From a musical perspective, whilst the composition develops linearly to a notable climax, for me the work tails-off aimlessly to meet its resolution. That said, it is balanced through Thomson's alluring rhythmic themes which develop throughout the piece's length, anchoring (somehow) the composition to the Earthly-realm with which the audience have traditionally been familiar. 

In my experience of live digital composition and sonic performance, Ecstatic Arc succeeds in achieving a sense of musicality in an artistic medium that struggles to strike a balance between the utilisation of technology and raw creativity.

The show itself mirrors the wild, semi-deranged reputation of the coil’s creator, archetypical mad scientist, Nikola Tesla. But without Tesla's creative spirit in pushing the field of electronics in technology, the Ecstatic Arc experience would not even be possible to dream of. In the same way, it is artists like Ecstatic Arc's creator, Robbie Thomson, pushing the limits on the use of sound design and digital music in intermedia arts and as a discipline to itself who probe the frontier of digital tech in art.

A stormer of a show, catch it if you can.

ASCUS Goes to...HeLa

By Elizabeth Ward

HeLa, taking place in Summerhall’s Anatomy Lecture Theatre is simply a brilliant piece of theatre - this cannot be argued with. But one simply can’t ignore the way in which the play, concerning the life of Henrietta Lacks, deftly spans the realms of both science and theatre with joyous ease. The story, written and performed by the divine Adura Onashile tells the little known tale of Henrietta Lacks, whose cells generated the immortal HeLa cell line. The HeLa cell line has been integral to many of the greatest discoveries in science, and even today still prompts much scientific discussion – in fact one can only imagine what our world would be like today if HeLa was not in existence. Like millions of scientists around the world I have worked numerous times with the HeLa cell line, poking it, prodding it, burning it, yet until watching HeLa I was ignorant of the true story behind the science.

HeLa is a multi-character, one woman show in which Onashile single-handedly educates and enthrals each and every audience member. Over the course of an hour the audience is told of Henrietta Lacks, seeing it through the eyes of several characters that played important roles in Lacks life and death. Onashile’s skill at changing from character to character is simply tireless and a joy to behold – HeLa is not only highly intelligent and intriguing, but a work of true art.

Along the course of the play the audience are made aware of the scientific scholars who reached the highest points in their careers, purely down to the HeLa cell line. When juxtaposed against the opinions of Henrietta Lacks’ family, this truly strikes and chord and pricks the conscience of the audience. The refrain of ‘Nobody Ever Asked’ is haunting and harrowing, delivered perilously calmly by Onashile each time. One of the most charming parts of the production is Onashile’s take on Lack’s youngest daughter, Deborah and the supposed ways in which she deals with the thought of her mother’s immortality. The audience are captivated by the genuine inquisitive nature of Deborah, even in adult life and the sentiment pulls on each and every heart string, its bittersweet nature creating deeply emotional accents to the play.

One particular moving and shocking part of the play concerns bioethics and the controversy surrounding Chester Southam. The audience are told of how Mr Southam used predominantly black human test subjects in aggressive virology experiments. He carried out a study in 1952 by which he injected Ohio State Prisoners, mainly black in ethnicity with live cancer cells, without their knowledge. His actions warranted a probationary period for one year, however only 12 years later he had been appointed as Vice President of the American Cancer Society. It’s often hard to fully accept the facts that surround race inequality and the feelings of anger, injustice and shock were clearly seen on the faces of every audience member.

In a way never truly done so before, HeLa lays out the bare, naked and dirty truth of race exploitation in medicine. Henrietta Lacks was exploited, her family exploited, but HeLa also opens the door to a much wider and much more difficult discussion. Particularly in America, racial equality is a volatile subject, simmering under society. Though the abject racism of the mid twentieth century that faced Henrietta lacks has long been ended, the feelings and emotions that existed within, still linger on. A study undertaken by Corbie-Smith et al. in 1999, (though not recent, still relatively contemporary) investigated the attitudes of average African-american patients towards the health service. It found there were considerable levels of mistrust towards doctors, scientists and the government and many participants had concerns over the medical conduct of many practitioners towards them. An interesting outcome that most patients saw the process of signing a consent form – a protocol brought in partly due to Southam’s exploitation of predominantly black patients, as protecting only the Doctor and not the patient. It’s somewhat upsetting to believe that in a seemingly western society where equality is a birth-rite, that racial disparity can present itself in one of the most integral parts of society – the healthcare system.

Immortality is unattainable in man due to our inevitable degradation and the short-lived nature of our bodies. Indeed, only in one species Turriptopsis nutricala, a hydrozoan jellyfish has immortality been potentially identified. Despite this, the yearn to live forever is deep rooted in mankind civilisation. Religions worldwide place immortality as a gift donned only unto those of the greatest sanctity and mythology and folklore often depict quests for immortality. So maybe this then, aside from the scientific value, is what makes HeLa cells so fascinating. All those years ago, when scientists at the John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore recognise Henrietta Lacks’ cells proliferating, did they realise immortality was staring them squarely in the face? Did they know that this poor, African-american lady’s cells would change science forever? Save the lives of millions? Be mass-produced 50 years later? Probably not. But they knew it was special. They knew it had potential. Now we all know how special HeLa cells, were, are and will continue to be. But it wasn’t until now that I for one truly knew the story behind it, and the uncomfortable climate in which the discovery was made.

Science and Art are often pitted as ring partners, opposites, contrasts, but here Adura Onashile has married the two in the purest ways. Not only creating a spell-binding, wonderful piece of theatre, but educating the audience in ways that they didn’t know they needed to be educated. And as for the Lack family today? Earlier this year researchers in Germany revealed that they had sequenced the genome of Henrietta Lacks, publishing her private and intimate genetic fingerprint for the world to see. Yet again, over 50 years later, not one scientist asked permission from the Lacks family. However, only a few weeks ago Henry S. Collins and Kathy L. Hudson from the National Institute of Health called for a meeting with the Lacks family to assure them that the HeLa genome can only be used under controlled access, returning some privacy to the family, under their terms. 

Finally, somebody asked.

[E]laborate Jewellery Workshop: from the Earth to the body

[E]laborate events are a series of 'labs' run by ASCUS in which participants can experience practical hands-on art-science interaction and collaboration. This month our lab was based around jewellery making, featuring talks, discussions and a jewellery making workshop with geologists and jewellers from across the UK.

First up was Dr. Gillian McCay, teaching support officer and assistant curator of the Cockburn Museum at Edinburgh University's School of GeoSciences. To a diverse audience of jewellers, designers, scientists and children, Gillian's fascinating talk explained the processes by which metal can be extracted from the Earth, as well as some of the ethical and environmental issues surrounding the mining industry. This informative session was followed by a chance to get our hands on some of the microscopes and rock samples which Gillian had brought with her from the Cockburn Museum. The beauty and intricacy of the samples amazed young and old alike, and for many, the opportunity to get up close and personal with geology gave them a new-found appreciation of how much it rocks...

For our next speaker, jeweller Mari Ebbitt, the appreciation of rocks was nothing new. A recent graduate from the Edinburgh College of Art, Mari talked us through the inspiration and creation of the final-year project – a stunning collection of necklaces, rings and brooches incorporating an assortment of hand-collected gem stones. Captivated by the forms and patterns of the natural stones (gathered from Korea, gem shops and family heirlooms), Mari had set about to design a collection of jewellery that would complement their unique structures. In the process, she kept a meticulous recording of her trials and errors, and even pioneered a new way of casting using store-cupboard ingredients.

Her talk inspired a number of thoughts on the comparison between art and science, which came out in conversation over the course of the day. In particular, the differences between artists and scientists in their approach to sharing and accrediting new discoveries was highlighted as significant point of contrast. While scientists seek fame and recognition through the publication of their innovations, artists seem to be actively discouraged from advertising theirs. At least, this was Mari's experience upon the creation of her casting technique. Similarly, the value assigned to careful recording of methodology and results seemed to differ between the disciplines, and Mari was somewhat surprised to hear the scientists' enthusiasm over her documentation. Clearly, these kind of cross-curricular conversations are invaluable when it comes to discerning the differences and similarities between the artist and scientific worlds.

Our final speaker for the afternoon emphasised another area of cross-curricular collaboration, this time between the realms of silversmithing and technology. Kathryn Hinton, recent artist-in-residence in the Jewellery & Silversmithing Department at the Edinburgh College of Art, has a passion for preserving traditional techniques through combination with modern technologies. For the past 5 years, she has been pioneering the development of a design software that would allow silversmiths to create computerised model products, using the strikes of a remote-sensored hammer to generate the desired structure on screen. Coupled with the rapid advancement of 3D printing, this technology has allowed Kathryn to design and print pieces that would be practically impossible to create by hand, whilst preserving the art and skill of traditional silversmithing. Her presentation highlighted the importance of cooperation between the old and new, and demonstrated the remarkable results that such collaborations can produce.

After this fascinating series of talks, the workshop moved downstairs to Summerhall's own jewellery workshop, currently known as Art Clay Scotland (or the Au lab). Here, mother and daughter team Emma and Jill Baird talked us through the use of their favourite metal, silver clay, after which participants were invited to try their hand at jewellery production. An amazingly malleable substance, silver clay consists of a clay-like bind containing fragments of pure silver, allowing easy moulding before the clay is burnt off in the kiln and you are left with a beautifully crafted solid silver structure. The discovery of this remarkable material has helped Emma launch her extremely successful jewellery line, and the pair eagerly share their skills through regular taught classes. See the Art Clay Scotland website and Facebook page for more information about their products and workshops.

As a Neuroscience student, I'm not sure which I found more complicated, geology or jewellery design, but I'm sure I will never look at rocks or silver the same way again. Learning to look at the world through the dual perspective of an artist and scientist is a fascinating and incredibly rewarding experience, and one which is guaranteed to change the way we think, work and wear jewellery. 

For news about future [E]laborate events, keep an eye on the ASCUS website and Facebook page.

Images by Emma Baird

Experimental Cinema and the Magic of Film

Perhaps no medium transcends the barrier between art and science so completely as film.

When you visit the cinema, do you ever think about the process that went into creating the film? Do you consider the artistry of direction or the science of the camera itself? ASCUS jumped into the deep end at the EIFF with a foray into the world of experimental cinema, something that we found both challenging and intriguing. Eleanor Spring spoke to Kim Knowles, the curator of the Black Box program at the EIFF, who introduced us to the process and definition of this remarkable medium. Prepare for the extraordinary . . .

Black Box 3: Matter and Metamorphosis

The Edinburgh International Film Festival always showcases a wide range of short films and this year was no exception. Out of about twenty short film screenings, four were experimental (plus one live performance) and were shown as part of the Black Box series of programs. The films were grouped by theme: ‘(In)-action’; ‘Patterns and Repetitions’; ‘Matter and Metamorphosis’; ‘Bodily Encounters’ and ‘Live’. It’s intriguing that Kim Knowles, the curator of Experimental Film at the EIFF, chose to categorise these films under titles that all included scientific terms. Although this transpired not to have been deliberate. Knowles explained how the film selection and categorisation process is both lengthy and complicated, and the films themselves often inform the naming and selection of the programs. According to their website, the first program was inspired by the concept of action and reaction; the second by the cyclical yet unpredictable; the third by materials, change and alchemy; the fourth by performance, ritual and alienation. The final show was a series of live projections.

 ‘Black Box 3: Matter and Metamorphosis’ was of a program of 10 highly abstract short films, 3 – 23 minutes in length.  Each of the shorts focused in some way on materials, change, or both. Apart from any scientific significance that it might have, there’s something very poetic about the title ‘Matter and Metamorphosis’. But what do ‘Matter’ and ‘Metamorphosis’ really mean, and how do they relate to the films?

‘Matter’ is a tricky word. It does not have a clear scientific definition, and can be taken to mean: mass; particles; or any ‘thing’ at all, as long as it is not nothing!  But loosely speaking, matter is stuff, made up of particles with rest mass and volume. In everyday terms, it tends to refer to anything solid or tangible (although really the particles in gas are matter as well).

Picture: omniology.com

‘Metamorphosis’ is most accurately used by biologists. It describes a rapid and distinctive change in a life form’s physiology. A good example is the one everyone learns at school – the transformation from frog spawn, to tadpole, and finally to frog. But again, it is a word that crops up in everyday conversation, usually to refer to general change and transformation.

So the program could just as accurately (although less romantically) have been called ‘Stuff and Changes to Stuff’. This actually gives a pretty good indication of the content of the films in Black Box 3. Many of them were focused on some material undergoing change – for example the dazzling ‘Crystal World’ by Pia Borg, which features high resolution images of rapidly growing crystals, edited in with found footage from the 1940’s Holywood movie ‘The Night of the Hunter’. However, it was harder to see how other films sat within the theme, until Knowles revealed that the Matter and Metamorphosis of the program title could also refer to the literal film itself.

A recurring concept for Knowles when selecting a program is the development of a ‘dialogue’ between analogue and digital film. Whilst digital cinema may be unsurpassed in its visual detail and clarity, analogue film has a tactility and warmth that cannot be fully imitated. When analogue film is projected, the shutter on the projector has to shut and reopen between each new image. The frame changes 24 times a second, so the audience does not see the screen go black, but none the less the action of the shutter lends a uniquely visceral quality to analogue. There is also the fact that analogue film is just that – film. It is real organic matter, and as such it offers the experimental filmmaker a huge number of opportunities to physically experiment with the medium. A good example is ‘Polytunnels’ by Nicky Hamlyn. To those uninitiated to the world of experimental cinema, this is an exceptionally challenging film. At 23 minutes in length, it was by far the longest in the program. It features lingering black and white shots of a polytunnel farm, devoid of people, voiceover or soundtrack. The images were often jarringly edited with flashing lights and a flickering strobe effect. This was hard to appreciate until Knowles explained that this effect was achieved ‘in camera’. That is, the film images were spliced and edited in the camera during filming, not in post-production. Hamlyn is in fact making the audience aware of the physicality of the film itself.

To those unfamiliar with film, and the science and artistry that contribute to its creation, the difference between experimental cinema and the video art seen in modern galleries might be unclear. Knowles helped explain the distinction, which might seem vague given the fact that both forms often yield films that are both abstract and anti-narrative. Video art tends to be an extension of a general artistic vision or theme. An artist might have a concept that they wish to explore, and a film may end up being part of that process. The people that view their work might just watch a few minutes or seconds of their film, before moving on to a different part of the gallery.

A still from 'Ballet Mécanique' 1923-4, considered one of the
masterpieces of early experimental cinema
Picture: Google images

Experimental cinema, however, is the realm of filmmaker. The film is a work in its own right. The cinema aspect means that the audience are not casual viewers, but are immersed in the film for its entirety. Experimental cinema also has its own rich history, dating back as far as the early 1920s. The films often push the boundaries of what film the medium can do, and draw attention to the material itself. Pere Ginard and Laura Ginès’ ‘Metamorphosis du Papillon’ features footage of a caterpillar emerging as a butterfly from a cocoon. This natural process is compared to the chemical change that occurs when the film itself is burnt, resulting in a dual metamorphosis both on film and to the film itself, with remarkable visual effect.

Often the story behind the creation of the film was as involving as the film itself. The first film, ‘Sou’ by Tatsuto Kimura, was 7 minutes of almost hypnotic footage of changing textures, colours, cracks and crumbles, without music or voiceover. Remarkably, it was actually 7000 rapidly changing close-up colour photographs of 8 individual rocks that Kimura had ground, washed and cracked himself in his studio, over the course of a year.

This illustrates why so many audiences find experimental cinema so alienating, or even aggravating. Knowles used the analogy of a toolbox to describe an audiences’ approach to film. At the cinema, a film is usually judged on the merits of its story, the acting, the cinematography, the score, and the message that it means to convey. Audiences are so used to this that they tend to approach experimental cinema with the same outlook. Consequently, when met with a film that defies standard interpretation, people often feel as though they are being deliberately excluded from some deeper significance, and thus feel irritated and underwhelmed.

So how should an audience approach experimental cinema? It undoubtedly helps to have a little understanding of how films are made. Maybe do a little research into the history of cinema itself. Most importantly though is to stop looking for meaning in the film and approach without preconception and expectation. 

After all, to quote Knowles, ‘Do we have to understand something to experience it?’ Perhaps not, but be prepared that your experience will be unique and not necessarily conclusive. 

Hawking at the EIFF

He's one of the most successful and controversial physicists working today - and on top of that he's a world famous celebrity and one of the first to 'popularise' science. 

Stephanie Jewitt and Eleanor Spring got the brilliant opportunity to see the new documentary ‘Hawking’ at the EIFF. The film takes you from his birth in 1942 to the present day.

Eleanor talks about the documentary itself.

Guest starring on The Simsons in 1999
Picture source: Telegraph

Stephen Hawking’s work as a physicist has both shocked and divided the world of academia. But that is far from being the only remarkable thing about Stephen Hawking. He was one of the first to write a popular book about science for a general audience. He has become an international celebrity, making cameo roles in TV shows from Star Trek to The Simpsons, and delivering sell out public appearances across the globe. He has been married twice and has fathered three children. He’s even been promised a free ticket to space with the Virgin Galactic mission (the only person to have been so). And before he achieved any of this, fifty years ago he was diagnosed with ALS and was given two years to live. He hasn’t walked in almost half a century, and yet he continues to astound and inspire millions of people around the world.

Hawking with his wife Jane Wilde at their wedding in 1965
Picture source: Telegraph

‘Hawking’ doesn’t aim to explain his work – it isn’t a physics documentary, and it wasn’t meant to be. The screening was followed by a Q&A with the film’s director, Stephen Finnigan, and he managed to call ‘physicists’ ‘physicians’ twice! He made no pretence of understanding the science. Instead he documented the life of Hawking, and tried to provide a genuine insight into his world.

Finnigan worked closely with Hawking throughout the creation of the film, and it shows. The film is full of candid interviews with both the man himself and significant people in his life, most notably his first wife, Jane Wilde, his sister Mary, and one of his closest students, Bernard Carr. There are plenty of humorous insights into his life, and some surprisingly personal footage of Hawking in the care of his nurses, and as he learns how to use a new speech recognition system. His sharp sense of humour is a strong presence throughout the film. Despite his critical disability, he can still smile, and his eyes never lose their sharp focus and twinkle. But though it’s never made explicit, there is an allusion to the darkness and the difficulty that both his illness and his celebrity have meant for both himself and his family.

Hawking experiences zero gravity in 2007
Picture source: Telegraph

This documentary is also full of people that are conspicuous by their absence. Celebrity has a flip side, and Hawking’s personal life has been as highly scrutinised as that of any public figure. His second wife, whom he both met and divorced in controversial circumstances, does not appear, and neither do any of his children – though they are mentioned in nothing but a positive light. Whilst this could be interpreted as an attempt to hide any unpleasantness, it does simply have to be acknowledged that fame is often hardest for those around the celebrity. Hawking has caught the public’s interest in an entirely unique way, and this has quite evidently had repercussions on his private life. Even so, both he and his family should be entitled to their dignity and their peace, and the filmmakers obviously intended to honour that. This isn’t a juicy expose of everything you read in the tabloids. 

Even so, there is no shortage of anecdotes, quotes, photographs and interviews with celebrities from Benedict Cumberbatch to Buzz Aldrin. The film begins with a tantalising quote from Hawking: "Welcome to my world". Starting with Hawking’s childhood, through his schooling, university years, the diagnosis of his illness, his marriages and his work, the film gives a glimpse into the life of this remarkable man.

Want to know more about the Hawking’s contribution to physics?

Stephanie considers his work and its legacy today.

Stephen Hawking has over a dozen honorary degrees, a CBE, and has held the post of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge since 1979, the chair that was once held by Isaac Newton. He is regarded as one of the most eminent theoretical physicists of the 20th century and has devised ground-breaking theories on both the origins of the Universe and the formation of black holes. In the 1960’s Hawking proposed the controversial theory that the Universe began as a singularity, which is a point in space which has infinite density and no volume. Under these conditions the laws of physics break down. He presented mathematical theorems that extended the Big Bang theory, which were received with everything from astonishment to outrage, as they ruled out the need for a Creator.  To this day he receives bundles of what his assistants call ‘The God Letters’, from upset or enlightened believers giving him a piece of their mind.

What would Hawking Radiation 'look' like?
Source: news.discovery.com

He also developed another contentious theory proposing the death of the black hole. He found that black holes continually emit a type of radiation or light, which was later dubbed ‘Hawking Radiation’, implying that they could exhaust all their energy and eventually evaporate. This seemed to contradict the very definition of a black hole as a region of space from which nothing can escape. Supposedly, nothing that passes within the boundary called the ‘event horizon’ can escape the black hole’s immense gravitational pull. This includes light (hence the term black hole) and all other forms of radiation, yet Hawking’s equations show something different.  Close to the event horizon thermal radiation can be emitted due to the black hole having a discernible (but extremely low) temperature. Though received with scepticism at first, his theory became widely accepted in the scientific community and it led to him becoming one of the youngest fellows of the Royal Society, at the age of 32.

Source: Google Images

As well as publishing numerous scientific papers he has written internationally best-selling popular science books, including ‘A Brief History of Time’ and ‘The Universe in a Nutshell’. These books explain the physics behind some of the most fundamental theories of the Universe and our existence, to a general audience.

In the documentary Stephen’s publisher mentions his desire for ‘A Brief History’ to become a best-selling airport novel, and to the disbelief of many, he succeeded.

Hawking will be released at cinemas around the UK on 20th September.

Want to know more about Stephan Hawking and his work? There are a huge range of TV series, documentaries, films, articles and books available. There is also a dramatized account of his life by the same title, released in 2004, starring Benedict Cumberbatch.

Frankenstein's Army at the EIFF

Steam-punk Nazi-zombie-robots beyond your wildest dreams... plus how to reanimate your dog!

In the mood for a gore-tastic Nazi-zombie-robot film? Then Frankenstein’s Army is right up your street. Richard Raaphorst’s first feature length film splatters on to the screens at the end of this month delivering fantastically nightmarish, half-human half-machine creatures that wreak havoc on Soviet soldiers who unwittingly stumble upon a secret Nazi lab. Sure to become a cult horror classic, this darkly comic debut delivers gore-laden carnage against a grungy steam-punk backdrop. ASCUS was delighted to get a first glimpse of the 'The Doctor' and his creations at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Photo: IFFR

Set in Eastern Europe during the Second World War, a battalion of invading Soviet infantry soldiers discover a church that has been converted into a bizarre laboratory for creating the ultimate army of zombie-robots from the notes of Dr. Viktor Frankenstein. Presented as ‘found’ footage from the video camera of Demitri, an amateur film maker within the battalion, we watch as the soldiers discover a disturbing creature that appears to have been sewn together from dismembered body-parts and rusty tools. Though blind, we soon find the beast is not to be messed with, as one soldier ends up with his intestines strewn across the floor.

Searching to find their fellow officers in the basement (uh-oh...) the soldiers enter a maze of small underground tunnels from which more ‘Zombots’ emerge and close in. The Zombots are reanimated corpses, mostly of Nazi soldiers, that have been modified by ‘The Doctor’ to create nightmarish zombie-robots in a staggering variety of forms. There are great lumbering figures with scythes or saws for hands and bulging white eyes; shuffling, growling creatures connected to thick mains electricity cables and one has a propellor in place of a head. The breadth of creativity and imagination that has gone into these designs is fantastic. The individuality of each creature reminds me of the ‘Cenobites’ from Hellraiser, yet the film brings with it the tongue-in-cheek comedic style of The Evil Dead. With a distinct lack of CGI the Zombots have been brought to life with painstakingly created costumes and it is this attention to detail along with the dark and grimy, industrial style of the set that lends the film originality and a cult status that is sure to follow.

The Doctor played by Karel Roden has the classic combinations of stoic politeness and intellectual prowess that often goes hand in hand, in these types of films, with being utterly insane. His brief description of his motivations point to some issues with his father, but do we really care why he is a crazed scientist that remodels humans into an army of zombie-robots that do his bidding? Or do we simple want to see what happens when he transplants half the brain of a Nazi with half the brain of a Communist then reanimates the host body with 50 thousand Volts? Yeah, thought so.

Photo:Dread Central

Obviously this film is immersed wholly in science-fiction. Or is it? In the early 2000’s The Safar Centre for Resuscitation Research in Pittsburgh, USA conducted experiments in which they successfully ‘reanimated’ dead dogs. The dogs were placed in a state of ‘suspended animation’ by replacing their blood with a near freezing saline solution that contained glucose and oxygen. The dogs were clinically dead for 3 hours after which time the blood was replaced and a little like the Zombots, they received electric shocks to bring them back to life. Although some had permanent brain damage, nearly all the dogs return to full functionality. Understandably the centre dislikes the term ‘zombie-dog’, as their research is aimed at saving lives. If used on humans this procedure could buy more time for mortally wounded patients that are, for example, bleeding-out and need to be transported long distances to get to a hospital, as soldiers injured in the battlefield might.

The reanimated dog experiment harks back to those conducted during the Second World War by Soviets scientists and detailed in the 1940 documentary Experiments in the Revival of Organisms. This film shows a decapitated dogs head being supplied with blood and able to respond to external stimuli: licking its chops and blinking. Eerily, this sort of thing is even more common place nowadays as we keep various animal organs alive in laboratories independent of their owners, for medical research purposes. 

To discover more experiments designed to reanimate humans, we need to go back to when the medical practice laws were a little more lax. In 1803 Professor Giovanni Aldini conducted public experiments on recently put to death criminals, to incite ‘galvanic reanimation’ of the dead. This consisted of applying electrical currents to the bodies which reanimated them, but only enough to twitch and jerk their muscles. It was these experiments that inspired Mary Shelley’s famous gothic novel Frankenstein in which a scientist creates a grotesque creature from old body parts and brings it back to life via electrocution. Is the crazed, yet brilliant Dr. Victor Frankenstein of Frankenstein’s Army the son of Shelley’s scientist or perhaps, he himself? Apparently the The Doctor’s father once said “man would be more productive with hammers and screwdrivers for fingers”, but maybe he was just a little eccentric. 

Frankenstein’s Army is a must-see for any sci-fi-horror fan. The gloriously freaky zombots are the stars of the show with a good supporting cast of soldiers to let their blood and guts out in classic horror-comedy style. As to its grounding in reality, the researchers in Pittsburg are set to be trialling their experiment to ‘reanimate’ humans in the near future, though with better motivations than our good Dr. Frankenstein had.