Science in the Make-up Chair

Science in the Make-up Chair

Scientists, seeking more active roles as film consultants, try not to get 'sandwiched by the script' | By Hal Cohen

Image: Erica P. Johnson

Ever try to get bitten by a radioactive spider to acquire web-slinging powers in your wrists? Baffled as to the lack of matter transporters for sale on the market? Think that organ transplants can be conducted strictly in dank, underground laboratories performed with the ease of fixing a sandwich?

Preposterous as all of the above seems, a sensationally scary number of people receive their scientific education from the movies. Lamentably, the silver screen is not the most accredited of institutions. So when science is on the set in Hollywood, it usually spends a lot of time in the make-up chair. It has to. Looking unadulterated science in...