Real scientists, he explains, share their chalk, passing it back and forth like taking turns in a conversation. And they stand off to one side of the blackboard, not directly in front of it.
How would he know, you wonder? He knows because he's not an actor, he's a real scientist-psycho-physicist Brian Wandell of Stanford University. So are half of the folks portraying Oppenheimer's colleagues. Actor Schultz, it seems, is surrounded by scientists. They help him play his part better, he insists, and help the movie portray scientists more accurately than Hollywood has done in the past.
Traditionally, Hollywood has chalked up a pretty poor record in its portrayal of scientists. During the 1950s, the silver screen brought us humorless, white-coated geniuses who saved the world from menaces like radioactive ants, space invaders, and polio. Even now, movies are populated with bizarre eccentrics like time-traveling Emmett Brown in "Back to ...
