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I’ve tried to write this post a couple of times now, trying to be funny and carefree, but it never felt quite right to hit that light blue post button. Yet, WordPress keeps reminding me I have drafts and notifications, so I’m trying again, trying to make it exist again before making it good.

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Science Pit!

Since my last post, I spent one year teaching, one year at Yale Neuroscience, and I’m now finishing the second year of my PhD Fellowship at UiT – The Arctic University of Tromsø.

With time, my idea of this blog also changed; initially, I envisioned it as a platform to primarily share cool science facts and information I found interesting, but now I think I might put that on the back burner and share more of my PhD life and research. Perhaps, I think, it’s time to go back to basics: personal blogs, slow reading, silly videos, and enjoying life.

I have been promising a YouTube channel for ages now, without a clear vision on what to post and how to make it aesthetically pleasing and interesting, overthinking and overanalysing every shadow, colour bleed, and my accent and the topic I’m covering, and bla blah bla… Realising I’m stressing myself out over… nothing really, I kinda sorta gave up on that part, to have something polished and sleek, especially because I always liked that super-personal aesthetic of the early 2000s and 2010s.

With that in mind and constantly being bombarded by misinformation and terrifying (eco) information, I finally landed on a topic for my first video: the sixth R in reduce, reuse, recycle, rethink, refuse, repair.

I feel that (some) media channels are almost fear-mongering about all the scary stuff we are surrounded by, like PFAS, and natural catastrophes like wildfires and floods. Don’t get me wrong, it’s extremely important to be aware of these things and know how to prepare, but when that is the only thing being written about, it can quickly lead to mental fatigue and unconscious avoidance of eco topics.

It’s easy to start feeling helpless, just another insignificant cog in the capitalistic machine, unable to change the system. Many of you who follow me on social media are already aware of my opinion that the greatest lie ~~the devil~~ capitalism created was that consumers are responsible for global warming and just every other (un)natural disaster they want to pin on someone else.

So, what can ~~you~~ we do?

To me, it’s so easy to repair my clothes and even some smaller electronics with whatever I have on hand, but I realised that a skill like that is learned and that many guides overcomplicate things. Sometimes, they even make things seem a little scary, or like we need to get more things (often a glittered-out sewing machine is included) or teach tricky techniques and knots.

Especially now living in Norway, where people prefer mending in lieu of buying new, I wanted to share how I mend the stuff I own and how my journey on a no-buy challenge (new clothes) is going so far.

The other topic that has been bugging me (pun intended) is reading. Am I crazy, or did social media take all the joy out of reading and sharing your impressions, tidbits, and criticism? Everything is a ~~fucking~~competition now: how many books you read, how fast, how quickly you post about them, how many books can you performatively stuff in your fast-fashion book bag. Social media turned reading into a performance, and a very bad one at that.

Slow reading is reading. Reading one book a year is reading. Audiobooks are reading. Reading essays and articles is reading. Sharing about what you read and how it made you feel, good or bad, is encouraged and welcomed. Or at least, it absolutely should be.

What I’m trying to say is that I’m starting a book podcast.

I know, I know, but this time I’ll keep up with it, I promise. I’ll post and record and interview and edit, and Spines & Vibes will be known around the globe in no time. I know, I know, I don’t have the best track record, but I have to this time, because otherwise I’ll be a bad friend who made my best friend make a logo that will go unused, and I really really can’t be that friend.

Wait, didn’t I open this whole post by saying I’ll share more about my PhD life? Well… I am currently at an academic writing retreat working on my first manuscript… By writing a blog post… At least it’s the thought that counts?

So long, my friends, and let me know what happened with all of you in the last three? four? years.

My next blog post is coming i~~n three years~~ next week-ish.
And the video soon-ish too.

I already wrote couple of posts on this topic, and today I’m focusing on several examples from movies and TV shows I’ve recently watched. The movies I’m going to write about are Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life, The Good Liar, Charlie’s Angels (2019 version), and Paranoid TV show. So, if you are planning to watch those, just a warning that there will probably be spoilers below!

Let’s start with the obvious and amusing misportrayal: in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life (2003 movie), Lara is riding sharks in the opening sequence. I think no one would believe this is actually possible, but shark petting videos recently became very popular. However, many researches are strongly discouraging this type of behaviour.

The Good Liar (2019 movie) is an interesting thriller with really good cast that I actually enjoyed. Without giving out too much of the plot, I’ll just mention one scene where Helen Mirren’s character gives the haircut to the character played by Ian McKellen. She uses cut hair for the DNA analysis, factually linking McKellen’s character for the past crimes.
Of course, we all know that without the root, there is no DNA to analyze, right? Not quite.
Most companies that do DNA analysis require hair with follicles in order to extract DNA for analysis; however, they mostly deal with paternities, so they need the nuclear DNA. Mitochondrial DNA, on the other hand, apparently can be extracted from the hair itself. For the movie’s purposes, I think nuclear DNA was needed, so this seems like a movie mistake. But, recently scientists did manage to successfully extract nuclear DNA from rootless hair, but that DNA is often fragmented and complicated to extract.
I would also just like to mention that I believe this movie explains trauma and coping surprisingly well for a Hollywoood movie.

In Charlie’s Angels (2019 movie), which I hoped would be more enjoyable than it was, a very interesting premise was introduced; in order to effortlessly communicate, members of the team get a certain tattoo (at least I think it’s a tattoo, but don’t 100% quote me on that) and they can hear thanks to it. So, my first thought was, wow, they really went sci-fi on this one, but it sounded too out there. And then I remembered bone conduction. Simply, bone conduction allows you to hear the transmission, without blocking the outside sounds. And yes, only you can hear it. There are headphones already in use for this type of thing, and they can be also used to help with some kinds of hearing impairments. These headphones are placed on the skull, and I haven’t seen it implemented in a tattoo yet, but it’s actually a neat idea.

Paranoid (2016 TV show) is, in my opinion, really bad, despite only tangential connection to Biology. This show feel anti-medication and anti-psychiatrists, portrays them in a very bad light, and chooses not to mention how much medications and psychotherapy are actually helping people. The premise is also built on one of the cliche “anti-big pharma” representations. I was honestly insulted, despite not working in any of these fields. There is a also a subplot concerning a female character who had provocative photos of her taken 15 years ago, and she is not longer in possession of said photos; she is blackmailed with the possibility of leaking those. Her love interest immediately accuses her of things I won’t write here, but you get the main idea. I mean, am I the only one who sees this as highly problematic
This TV show is doing some serious damage to the health care, it is insulting to physicians, it is insulting to patients, and I honestly can’t believe that no one during the whole production didn’t say anything.

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I hope you like these kind of posts, because I already have enough material for another one (there are a lot of Biology & science mistakes on the big screen). What is your favourite movie mistake related to Biology?

Tag: blog

Mina, where the hell have you been, loca?

Biology in popular culture – movies&TV (part 1)