Not only did the film Jurassic Park herald a new era in computer-generated movie effects, it also dramatically raised the profile of paleontology, sparking the careers of many who are now leaders in the field. If that wasn’t enough, it raised questions about the ethics of DNA research.
Based on Michael Crichton’s novel by the same name, Jurassic Park hit cinema screens 30 years ago, and told the story of an ambitious theme park that used resurrected dinosaurs as its attractions. But as the story unfolds, things start to go wrong.
In this Discovery episode of The Conversation Weekly, we speak with Travis Holland, a senior lecturer at Charles Sturt University in Australia. He researches media and fan studies, and has looked at the popular and scientific cultural impact Jurassic Park continues to have.
And in the aftermath of the Spanish general election it appears that Catalan nationalist parties may be pivotal as rival blocs seek to form a government. This will again bring attention to the question of to what degree there is a collective sense of Spanish identity. Considering the matter here is Víctor Climent Sanjuán, professor of sociology at the University of Barcelona.
Have a great week.
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The Jurassic Park franchise has spawned several movies, theme parks and spin-off products.
(Shutterstock)
Nehal El-Hadi, The Conversation
Jurassic Park was a technological breakthrough for film because of its use of CGI. It also revived an interest in paleontology and raised ethical questions about DNA use.
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Negro Elkha/Shutterstock
Víctor Climent Sanjuán, Universitat de Barcelona
Spanish history recounts the existence of various peripheral nationalisms (Catalan and Basque), while, in many cases, the existence of a Spanish nationalism of Castilian origin is ignored.
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Water and sediment pour off the melting margin of the Greenland ice sheet.
Jason Edwards/Photodisc via Getty Images
Paul Bierman, University of Vermont; Tammy Rittenour, Utah State University
The soil was extracted during the Cold War from beneath one of the U.S military’s most unusual bases, then forgotten for decades.
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Lee Morgenbesser, Griffith University
Leadership succession can be dangerous for dictatorships, encouraging infighting among political elites and potentially plunging a country into chaos.
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Michael Clark, University of Oxford; Keren Papier, University of Oxford
We studied 55,000 people’s diets and linked them to data on environmental impacts of food.
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Mark Byron, University of Sydney
A Sydney librarian recently discovered a misfiled lost gem in the stacks: Virginia Woolf’s own copy of her first novel, with handwritten notes for revision. An expert explores what they tell us.
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James Intriligator, Tufts University
ChatGPT can be very useful – if you shift how you view it. The first step is to stop thinking of it as a chatty search engine.
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Viktoriia Grivina, University of St Andrews
As my seat shakes from the stereo effects, nobody in the nearly-full cinema flinches. The teenagers to my right are as used to explosions as J. Robert Oppenheimer himself.
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