Science film studies people Communication Studies scholars even folkloreists. So this will be particularly interdisciplinary. For reasons that should by now be obvious. The topic is interdisciplinary. So in particular were going to return to this question. Right. What are the relations between art science and entertainment and culture in cinema . How do they reinforce one another in these particular contexts . Were going to see the movement of people the same people across institutions right across media forms and across science. So its all going to be kind of blending together. And also Science Education obviously in Science Education what students are taught depends on what the state of the art knowledge is for that period so we have to consider. What is the scientific and Technical Knowledge but really to understand this historically we have to understand how Science Education is both a product and a driver of culture and what i mean by that is that any form of Science Education is going to incorporate attitudes and approaches towards both education and science that are kind of predominant at the time. So before we move way back to the 1950s not that long ago, but i wanted to kind of unpack some assumptions that you might have when i say science on tv. So some of you are probably old enough to remember either seeing the first time or watching and rerun bill nye the science guy. Right bill nye bill nyes kind of the this generations predominant tv signs educator, right . He wears the white coat in this case, its blue. So im already contradicting myself, but and he does interactive science experiments, very enthusiastic. He himself as a scientist, right . Or you remember someone like sheldon from the big bang, right the the science sitcom is another model, or maybe i didnt put it up here because i thought i would make me sound really old things like er or numbers right er the medical doctors numbers the mathematician working with his brother. So these are kind of contemporary genres and images we have of what science on tv is but really to understand whats going on in the 1950s, you have to back up because tv was new media particularly for education. So tv was to education then what Something Like the internet or moocs or Online Education is to education now, right . Its this brave new frontier. Its not so new. Its really comes out of the use of 16 millimeter film in classrooms, which is something that weve already talked a little bit about for the 20s and 30s, but moving that discussion forward whats going on in the 50s is a real massive expansion of the use of 16 millimeter film in classrooms, and thats driven in part by technology. So you see a picture there of the kodak pageant projector. The pageant projector was a new projector that kodak invented it was lighter. It was more portable. It was easier to thread the film didnt burn. Always good when i when a School System invests in it, although the film did sometimes burn but it was advertised as not burning. Um this new new version of classroom really sort of fostered. The expansion of the educational Film Industry so film historian Jeff Alexander in his book films you saw in school. Estimates that there were approximately a hundred thousand or so give or take films that were made in this period and they were made by largely by educational film companies. So these would be Companies Like coronets archer. Were going to see archer today when we watch duck and cover even Encyclopedia Britannica again, just to kind of capture the new media idea. That a encyclopedia producer would be branching out into classroom film kind of captures the enthusiasm and the expansion of this as a technology in the classroom. So anytime that a new technology is introduced into a classroom. I mean, maybe this didnt happen when teachers had their pointers, right . But anytime that a new technology is introduced in the in particularly in the postwar period theres a little bit of handwringing that goes on so you see the appearance in the 1950s of a series of books. One this one particular television and education the us written by dr. Charles siteman who is credentialed both in the school of education and the department of communication and he asks the question to which the obvious answers. Yes, right. Can it be the education in our time is suffering a sea change but the use of the verb suffering is kind of instructive right . Because theyre really not sure and his next question is what is excellence in kind of classroom film and video instruction and just as importantly how is it absorbed so really kind of focusing not just on the production of the knowledge but on the consumption the learning learning as we would call it. So some hand ringing is to be expected. But theres also a lot of enthusiasm so the fcc commissioner in 1951 frida. Honeck published a piece in variety, which is a sort of trade magazine for for hollywood and performing arts in which she articulated her vision for television in education television. She said is one of the greatest forces america has ever known for education. But she too then asked to kind of hedge question. She says are we going to let this genie serve as an unvarying diet of Horror Stories and cowboy daring do ie. Are we going to let hollywood take it over . Or can we somehow harness the genie to perform wonders of public enlightenment unequaled since the days of the renaissance, right . So again, you have to be kind of picturing. This is what theyre seeing another renaissance another enlightenment in television, which something that today is pretty mundane. Pretty much a part of our everyday life. So part of where that enthusiasm is coming from is the very Successful Use of film in wartime context particularly for propaganda and newsreels. So, let me talk a little bit about newsreels first newsreels were shorts that were shown before movies people like them so much that they even eventually developed dedicated newsreel theater. She could go to a theater just to watch one after another newsreel in big cities like new york and la and in 1948 newsreels became a Television Program nbc launched a 10 minute so not a long one but a 10 minute tv program called camel newsreel theater. So Something Like maybe the first cnn except its not running 24 hours. Its running every you know, 10 minutes every once in a while. So newsreels were very popular. Propaganda films like why we fight so why we fight was a film that was made during World War Two by frank capra who aria had some army experience, but joined back up after the bombings of pearl harbor and was immediately grabbed by his Commanding Officers because by that point he was an Oscarwinning Hollywood director, right . So he had some he had some incentive to be used in this way rather than than at the front. And so his Commanding Officer recruited him to do what he called and im quoting now. Documented factual information films that will explain to our boys in the army the principles for which we are fighting. So kind of invoking the documentary ethos, but clearly meant to persuade right and thats what the line is between documentary and propaganda and capra himself in reflections on this talked about how his approach to this was framed as an answer to lenny reef installs triumph of the will which is considered to be one of one of the best if not the best best in quotes propaganda films right of of all time. So theyve had a lot of success with with the use of film for a conveying information for persuading for convincing. Of course, they would think that it would have more applications in the classroom, but this became even more urgent in the context of the dropping of atomic bombs on hiroshima and nagasaki in japan and the real escalation of what several people have called the Nuclear Culture or the nuclear future. Right. So this nuclear future. On the one hand right everyone knew about this everyone knew that this ended the war that it was a massive loss of loss of life, right . It was a very grim dark scene. So thats kind of the dark atomic culture. The thought was that in the postwar period really harnessing Nuclear Energy for positive uses. So eisenhower gave a speech in 1953 that became known in retrospect as the adams for peace speech and this became a kind of a Propaganda Campaign for the peaceful uses of Atomic Energy peaceful uses of Atomic Energy would include reactors for generating energy, but also things like radioisotopes so using the reactors to create radioisotopes that then become medical tracers, so thats why you have in the logo that eventually gets right made the medical icon too right medicine science engineering agriculture. Its all going to be a part of our nuclear future. Just in case the speech and those methods of persuasion didnt work. They also developed a series of traveling museum exhibits. So they would put them thats a Atomic Energy commission sponsored exhibit adams for peace that traveled around so itd be very likely if you were a School Elementary or middle School Student and you went to a Natural History or a Science Museum in the 50s that you would see one of these and they would have things like radioactive frogs frogs that had been injected with radio isotopes and students could handle geiger counters and sort of put them over the frogs and it would start clicking right so some of the First Interactive exhibits were undertaken in the context of this adams for peace exhibit. And thats a good example of museums as a medium reinforcing other mediums, right . Museums trying to become new just like film is trying to become new on television. So the goal of adams for peace we find out from looking at behind the scenes documents because it wouldnt be marketed this way in public was a kind of emotional management of the tensions that are involved in the Nuclear Culture. So the tension being on the one hand escalating nuclear armament, thats kind of the the hallmark of the cold war period but on the other hand homefront uses of Atomic Energy that they want to kind of spin as particularly harmless that they want to domesticate. So educating civilians and a particular educating children became a high priority. So bo jacobs talks about how this generation was the first generation that learned to live in a Nuclear World and you can see here. This is a quote from one of the folks at the Indian Indian springs school in nevada, which is next to an air force base, right . Its a tworoom school and theyre not being taught to deck and cover but duck and i guess hold one another this is on the cover of colliers magazine and the the person from the school is boasting that they learned how to spell adam and bomb before they learned to spell mother. Um, just to kind of imagine that shift right in learning those words that had much bigger cultural and social meaning and were certainly much scarier than the word mother. So the federal government was interested in educating a lot of civilians, but in particular a lot of children. In the procedures of Civil Defense in what are the actual threats of an atomic attack . What would it look like and so they devised this film . Called duck and cover. So what were going to do here is wash a small clip of the introduction to deck and cover featuring the theme song. Still dont know there was a terrible by the name of bird and the third one here when they just wouldnt give me never got him even just what he did what we all must learn to do you and you and you be sure in the member what bert the turtle just did friends because every one of us must remember do the same thing. Thats what this film is all about. That and cover. This is an official Civil Defense film produced in cooperation with the federal Civil Defense administration and in consultation with the Safety Commission of the National Education association produced by freedom oh its gonna go again. All right, because if it goes again gonna want to sing arent you . All right, so what do you notice about that introduction a couple of things so i i played through the the song so that i could talk a little bit about the ways in which the production values of this that both the content and the production values were framed by interactions between lots of different kinds of artists and and those who are interested in conveying the actual information. So those who are interested in conveying the actual information, right the federal Civil Defense authority or association right cited there School Safety organization from the National Education of associate National Educational association, right . So Government People collaborating with school teachers. Collaborating with fairly high quality talent that was recruited by the producers at archer film. So the film was written by ray meyer and directed by Anthony Rizzo and the jingle was written afterwards. It didnt initially start with a jingle. The jingle was written afterwards by the same team that advised see the usa in a chevrolet. Thats so that slogan when it resonate for your generation, but if you watch mad men, i think the sort of the advertising culture that produced these slogans that became a part of massive Advertising Campaigns and even in the case of the chevrolet slogan became a hit for a pop singer named dinah shore, right . So theres crossover here. So its a very upbeat and positive song. Its very memorable. We have female voices and male voices. The goal of this film bo jacobs talks about in his article atomic kids is to teach children how to survive an atomic attack by themselves. Thats important, right because part of whats going on here, theres two parts to whats going on here on the one hand. You have to inform children what it is. Theyre actually seeing if they see in a nuclear attack. So you see a kind of im going to talk about this as kind of domesticating but bo jacob says making the threat normative right . Something is scary as an atomic attack. You cannot show film of two children, right because its too horrifying. So instead using the medium of animation they portray the the bright light, right . Thats the lightest described as a bright flash brighter than the sun. Right, and then it transitions into the animation where clearly the atomic bomb is and the narrator is saying this in very calm tones smashing through buildings, right causing wind causing a burn worse than your worst sunburn right . So these are all ways to kind of take this knowledge and convey it but in a way that maybe children would understand and and would be a part of their part of their world now the other side is not just conveying what it is that youre actually seeing knowing that youre that youre doing this or that youre being a part of this but what to do. So the narrative there also takes a kind of domestication tone. Right and it talks about responding to a bomb is not unlike responding to a fire right or an automobile accident, right . These are all things that could happen in your daily life just add atomic bomb to the list right and come up with a plan for responding. So this kind of domestication through both the use of animation as a technology and the narrative of the film is one of the the hallmarks. The other thing that jacobs talks about is the way in which this film acknowledges and now were kind of transitioning to attitudes towards education, right . So the idea that you would have to respond as a child by yourself to an atomic bomb rather than through a teacher or some Authority Figure right is a real shift. Its a shift in traditional social roles that is really part and parcel of the new atomic world, right . So what the film does is they assure children that grownups will be around. So im quoting from the film. Now older people will help us by the way. Its a adult narrator pretending to be a child, right . Older people will help us like they always do but there might not be any grownups around when the atomic bomb explodes. Then youre on your own. Right so they can help you get across the street. They can help you find a shelter. But in that moment, what are you going to do to respond . And so really kind of trying to heighten the alert of the children when youre on your own be aware of of when this is when this is happening so places like you can see the girl carrying against the School Building wall, right . It could happen in the schoolyard. Could happen when youre writing your bike in the neighborhood. Its timmy or tony. I can never remember his name is writing his bike. Heely drops his bike right and covers. So jacobs talks about how in order to achieve these new social roles really what the film has to do is make some traditionally idyllic childhood spaces kind of scary. Right if youre in the schoolyard or writing your bike or right an atomic bomb could fall. So he says this is sort of the dark side of cold war Science Education. This is a movie that tells a tale. Im quoting now. Of a dangerous present and a dismal future because of course then it begs the question if youre around and the atomic bomb drops and youve done your deck and cover when you come up, maybe youre still alone, right . Maybe this is just the future and this decimated Nuclear World. So deck and cover is a film that that educates about the actual phenomenon, but also tries to persuade children that they can sort of have a response that they have a social role on the home front to respond to this that goes beyond what any role would be of the military say to respond to a an attack right they have some control. Pretty heady stuff for Elementary Schools the lighter side of Science Education in this period kind of coming at it from the other angle still addressed at children all the way through college students, but really focused on enhancing funding and investments by the government in Science Research and Science Education. This is not new to the 1950s. This is something that that comes out of World War Two. So the president ial science advisor described here on the cover of Time Magazine the fact that the president ial Science Advisors making the cover of Time Magazine should tell you something the fact that hes described as the general of physics right should tell you that this is sort of the vision of the future that government will support Research Activities by public and private organizations and in particular Science Education, right . So the first thing to come out of this many of our bush had which is his name the general of science or the general of physics. Has a National Science board that is rolled over into what is now the National Science foundation. So the National Science foundation becomes the first very Big Government foundation. There were National Institutes of health before that, but this is really a big kind of Pure Research and education funder. As the 50s move on sputnik, which you may or may not be familiar with sputnik the satellite that the soviets fired into space that was circling the right the us spying on us. Really escalated cold war attentions between the russians and us and in particular around the issue of what they would call today the pipeline problem. The pipeline problem is the idea that you need to have people at every level of Science Education staying in Science Education so that we can build what they call a scientific manpower right . Same language as the language of war except with this with these scientific manpower and woman power people are going to do is work for research to to counter the soviet threat so in addition to sputnik and kind of all the existing efforts for the government to fund science and push an agenda of research and education. There was a massive economic boom after the war and a large corporate windfall particularly at Companies Like at t, right and bell who were science and technology companies, right and the thought among those those companies with that some of this might be plowed back into promoting Science Education. As they presented it in public and you can hear if you listen to the beginning of hemo the magnificent. Why are we doing this brought to you by at t to promote mans efforts to understand natures laws. Well, yeah, thats all well and good but the other push for this was coming from advertising agencies, which of course have ties not just to advertising and Communication Media but to to hollywood, right so crossovers there. So in particular Marcel Lafollette and others have done research in these archives and shown that the agency nw air was pushing bell to attract more family audiences. Sort of hook them early on the brand right and then and then youll have more youll have a bigger market as time went on. So this led to at t bell labs investing in a series of science films which are among the most popular and widely held in classroom collections even to this day. Theyre still held although theyre not shown as much and although you can see from the shape of the icon there and video now vhs and dvd. So these would be about various phenomena are mr. Sun strange case of cosmic rays. These are ones that capra was involved in ill talk about in a minute unchained goddess about the weather, right . And ultimately it was eight one hour programs and one half hour programs over roughly a seven or eight year period through which and join the analogy here between duck and cover and this a similar kind of recruitment of toplevel artists took place to produce these films. So its kind of incongra. Its less in congress. I think to focus on frank capra as doing his duty for the government government to make a propaganda film. Than it is to imagine someone whos won three oscars. Right deciding that hes going to do science films. So what gives what gives with frank capra and his directing and production of many of these films . First off capra it was thought had the perfect background for this. He actually had some science training. He earned his undergraduate degree from caltech and Chemical Engineering in 1918 and during world war one. He taught math to artillery recruits at fort scott in san francisco. So he wasnt ever going to be a filmmaker at the age of five his family immigrated to la he worked himself through college with odd jobs and one day when he was working as a math teacher in san francisco. He saw an advertisement for the opening of a satellite film studio. And he went and basically hustled himself in the door, right . Let them think he had more experience than he actually did with cameras in various other things because he was interested in it. And that was the that was the thing that got the ball rolling now he left although hed had a great deal of success in hollywood in the 30s as i mentioned. He left hollywood to enlist in World War Two and make these other films. He came back at a moment when his career was in a bit of a low now again, it sounds kind of in congress because i think many of us remember him primarily for its a wonderful life. Which was made in 1946, which is a christmas classic a much beloved film at the time it got kind of mixed critical reviews and and he was in a low so thats part of the explanation for why why he wants to do these films the other piece of it. However has to do with the fact that he was a deeply committed catholic. And so were going to see. When we look at these films that influence and ill talk more about that as we after we watch the clips. So another thing to say about capra is later in his life. He reflected back on kind of what was it that made him a success and he subscribed very strongly to what film study scholars would call the oter theory, right . The director has the vision and the director is the one that without any interference from right producers or anyone recruits the writers works in close contact with them. And so its oter theory, but its kind of a team, right the team is going to Work Together and closely and he says this is the way that Motion Pictures can become more important and have something to say to the picture going public. So he did that when he was recruited to to work for Bell Laboratory series. In several ways. The first was he picked wellknown actors. So the characters name even on the back of the dvd box. And and in the script is the fiction writer. Played initially by wellknown tv character actor eddie albert became more known as his career went on and then in some of the later bell signs films played by Richard Carlson who would have been recognizable to to viewers from creature from the black lagoon. Right kind of a scifi context. Interestingly carlson to kind of reinforce this idea of the team that capra had carlson directed some of the later films when when capra backed out so there really was this kind of sense of collaboration. Similarly if you thought you heard daffy duck you did mel blanc who was voicing many of the looney tunes characters later voiced barney rubble on the flintstones. Was part of the voice talent for this and the animators. Interestingly headed by a Production Company run by Seamus Culhane and underscoring the point here that we have people traveling from film culture into tv as an influential new medium as a place where they can sort of work with really other really interesting artists. So call hane had a Television Program an animated Television Program that he was making mr. Magoo, but he had participated in disneys snow white in animating disney snow white, right . So its kind of a long artistic legacy thats being taken from film to Science Education for television. So, okay. I want to i want to transition now to talk a little bit about the the plot structure and the characters and this should be the most familiar to you because we talked last time about frankenstein and jaws, right who were the scientists. What do they represent . So the plot of hemo, is that the fiction writer. Right this guy. In this case, its carlson. The fiction writer creates cartoon figures and their animals alongside a greek god figure they call their king, right . This is hemo hemo. The magnificent is the king of nature the king of the animals, but really the personification of blood right and hemo and his cast of animals get into a conversation with the fiction writer and the gentleman on your right dr. Research. Yes, hes actually called dr. Research. There was not a lot of creativity with names in this in this production. But all right. So dr. Research it turns out is actually a university of Southern California english professor named frank baxter. Frank baxter was if you went to school in the 70s 60s and 70s, youre guaranteed to have seen one of his films not all about english subjects, right . He had a sort of famous series about shakespeare that he did so he became the sort of personification of the scientist even though he is a doctor. Hes not a scientist right and mr. Fiction writer and dr. Research interact with the animals through a magic screen. Um, which is an interesting way to describe a screen in which animation is projected. Right . So mr. Fiction writer is kind of the wise guy joe cube public right . Hes always voicing the concerns that the audience might have. He smokes cigarettes, right . Hes a little twitchy. Dr. Research is very calm. He what he has a lot of the markers of a stereotypical nerdy scientist thinking back to Fred Mcmurray in the nutty professor, right the glasses the calm rational temperament the bland suit, right . Much of the first part of the film is a discussion between the animated characters and the human characters about blood mechanics. Right, and so its a discussion that takes place partially in film and partially an animation. But about halfway through theres a sort of pivotal moments. Where hemo gets a little more confrontational . Right, and he says stop weve just been talking about plumbing. And both the humans are sort of taken aback, right . What do you mean and hemo says were not going to go any further unless you can tell me the two words that unites. The study of blood mechanics and the study of art poetry and nature. So mr. Fiction writer gets the kind of panic look on his face and he says stock lets not do it. Its a trap. That only becomes a cliche later and he he tries to get him to not do it. But dr. Research is very calm. So lets watch the clip where where this goes down. Oh war does he do it . Thats a good question. But before i can go into that, ill have to tell you something about blood itself. Just a moment brother science is so far your chatter on plumbing has been elementary, but harmless. But now that youve come to me i refuse to listen further unless you first describe me in just two words. I can never mind. Professor mention the two key words ill know you understand the poetry the mystery and the true meaning of blood. Otherwise back to your plumbing. He done hes trapping us. Do you know what the two words are . Oh you do. Two words the best scribe you and connect with a mystical origins and traditions of life are seawater. The water but he brother research my apologies you mean hes right . Listen to this learned man, and youll hear a real tale. See why . Doctor, please tell them who i am. Well, thank you. Its only a theory. Of course. Just i got to see but if you squeeze the human body as you would have sponge. You squeeze out some 30 of the body weight as about six gallons of free water. Which we shall call body fluid this squeezed out body fluid has a salt content of 1 tropical sea animals might exist in this aquarium of body liquid. Now the sauce and seawater are like the salts and body fluid as you can see. Although sea water today is two or three times saltier than body fluid some biologists account for this difference by saying that body fluids today represent the less. Composition of seawater as it was nearly 400 million years ago. When life emerged from the sea and began to crawl on land. At any rate a billion and a half or two billion years ago life is presumed to have originated in the warmth of tropical waters as a minut singlecelled aquatic organism something akin to the tiny living single cell. We know today as the amida. This shapeless jellylike primeval cell absorbed its food and oxygen directly from the sea. Highest islands Carbon Dioxide and other wastes to the warm ocean in the beginning hemo was the sea. All right. So what we have there is on the one hand dr. Research articulating what he says is just a theory about the oceanic origins of blood but that kind of linking of the oceanic origins of blood with hemo right as the sea. Is basically frank capra waiting into the territory of evolution. Right evolutionary biology and for capra there really is no divide between a scientific vision of evolution and a religious appreciation for science and its view of evolution. And later on you can see joe cube public mr. Fiction writer gets a little impatient with that right . He starts to challenge dr. Research. He says are you saying im just like all those germs. Im different. And he does say you are different. You have the human spirit you are capable of doing science, right and science is what links right all of these things. So kind of not what you expected right something on evolution in a film about blood. Similarly at the end of the film capra once again invokes christian imagery in a whats supposed to be an inspiring final statement on the possibilities of science and art so lets watch that one, too. The challenge the spirit of man, there are hundreds of others, but the men of science will solve them brother hemo. Sunday sure, you will. What better way to Love Thy Neighbor than to heal him . Ive got my little set job and my little animal friends have theirs, but well limited. Mans not limited your creations favorite you can imagine. Reason green create you know right from wrong to use these divine gifts is your job. And all natures waiting to see how it wright brother writer research into natures mysteries could well become the most rewarding and farreaching of all the eyes. One of your greatest physicists max planck said that over the temple of science should be written the words. He must have faith. Your great apostle paul wrote to his new church in thessalonica, prove all things hold fast that which is good. Scientists says wait, a saint says prove all things. Together they spell hope big take a lesson from your heart. All right. So just in case you werent getting it before the hymn like music started, right . So whats cap for doing hes really articulating. What he sees as fluid connections between science art and religion, right . So human exceptionalism, thats part of sort of the western christian tradition, but human exceptionalism is part of that is being given the divine gift to reason right and that juxtaposition. Of max planck saying yee must have faith that is to say the religious thing against saint paul right saying prove all things the scientific thing is meant to be sort of a use of imagery that really blurs those boundaries. Really and he doesnt see the blurring of those boundaries as a negative thing. He sees it as a hopeful thing. He sees it as the thing that could drive things forward in an inspirational way. Theres other imagery throughout that this film and through other bell signs in which capra was involved when we get to discussion. We can talk more about how that shifted without his involvement, but so i do want to hear more about what your reactions are in the future when we talk about these films, but in the meantime, lets stay in the 1950s. What was the Critical Response to hemo the magnificent . So the critical reviews were not great. Right. This is the review from Time Magazine. Hemo is a costly monument to the low opinion that some broadcasters hold of the viewers intelligence, right the thought that the film is condescending because it spoke to potentially Grade School Children and really tried to interest them in silly ways, right, but then also the circulatory system discussion is really boring. Why is it boring . The time of you were thinks that its because he used more animation than film. So this is a case where the reviewer says by jazzing up right the the story of the circulatory system. He threw a blight on scientific footage right film. That was as good as any of its kind ever televised the effect was you never want to get this next sentence in a review right unhappily that of a choice for le mignon smothered with gobs of mushroom right . Not a fan. Interestingly the animation works in duck and cover in a different way, right and theres probably ways that there could have been film used but there would have also probably had to have been film of animals, right and probably that would have been a whole other set of issues to have to deal with in terms of doing it in good taste and censorship and Animal Rights activism, right . So capris choice to use animation rather than film kind of backfired in terms of the critical reviews. That said this was a wildly Popular Series even when it came out. So in 1956 the very first one attracted 25 million viewers, thats not a lot by todays actually it is a lot by todays standards because now we have so many fragmented segments of the tv market. But what was even more remarkable is over the next 10 years it found new life in classroom viewing. So this is a film that was exactly like the vision of fcc commissioner that it would go back from tv into the classroom. Capra got letters James Gilbert a historian of American Religion has a chapter in his book about this about these films and he cites a letter from a viewer telling capra. It was quote. Not only Fine Entertainment and scientific education, but it was a religious experience to combine all three of the stroke of some sort of genius indeed, right so whats interesting about that is that . I think people make assumptions about the relationship between science and religion after the scopes trial in america, right . Because that was such a widely publicized media circus and i was such a clash right between fundamentalist perspectives and scientific perspectives. But in fact what we get from watching this movie is a sense that there may be a kind of diversity of popular ideas about evolution and the relationship with with science and with religion. So how did this film get made it got made largely because of capra but it was received the way that it was for several reasons and so catherine pandora who you read. Talks about the way in which again you have to go back to television as a medium and development the standards for different genres science documentary Science Education, right inspiration. Were still being formed. So this is part of the fact that these things are not settled allows capra to come in and kind of work with those right . James gilbert has a different idea coming from the perspective of the history of religion. His idea is basically that there wasnt as big of a Cultural Divide that in very prominent cases like the scopes trial that was exploited as a strategy to kind of sell the controversy by the media, but in fact as gilbert puts it capra did not have to build bridges between science and religion because they were already there. All he had to do was walk his films across them. Last but not least we have the perspective of a folklorist gregory shrimp and Indiana University in the folklore department. Basically says this film was able to be made because capra was a premiere storyteller that really his focus was on storytelling and narrative and he was exercising his Artistic License to create a kind of new mythology. Right a quasi religious sense of cosmic unity mystery and awe. So there are multiple theories for kind of not only why it got made and but why it was received the way it was received and why it continued to have success over the years in classrooms. But again to conclude by coming back to this larger lesson that catherine pandora articulates so eloquently some of what we do in this class is very much science for the masses right science for a popular audience pandora really warns us not to ignore science for Popular Culture because when you ignore science through Popular Culture you miss levels of complexity of thinking in she never says the public because its not a single entity right . Its publics or Popular Culture. And using Popular Culture in a film like chemo to understand that this was present really not that long ago. Right. Were not talking about you have to go back to before the reformation. Were talking about 1950s us. Gives us an example for why you need to study science and Popular Culture moving forward. The Popular Culture is not irrelevant that science and Popular Culture interact. So with that. Im going to leave you with some suggestions for further reading if you want to follow up on science on television, Marcel Lafollette has written an amazing book as has audra wolfe on cohort science and catherine pandora on the study of Popular Science in the history of science. So thank you for being here and i will see you next w thank your inviting me to talk about the fight the menace childrens crusade against communism trading cards. These are some of my favorite teaching tools at any