![]() |
COOKIES: By using this website you agree that we can place Google Analytics Cookies on your device for performance monitoring. | ![]() |
University of Cambridge > Talks.cam > Twentieth Century Think Tank > 'Mad, bad and dangerous to know' – the myth of the mad scientist in early horror films
![]() 'Mad, bad and dangerous to know' – the myth of the mad scientist in early horror filmsAdd to your list(s) Download to your calendar using vCal
If you have a question about this talk, please contact Richard Staley. In Christopher Frayling’s Mad, Bad and Dangerous? The Scientist and the Cinema, 1000 films between the 1930s and 1980s were examined and scientists or their creations were found to be the main villain in 30%, while scientific research constituted 39% of the threats. In contrast, scientists were the heroes in a mere 11 of these films. Professor Vanessa Toulmin examines the important work by Frayling and considers the period from the late Victorian to early Edwardian to present a case that this visual stereotype derives largely from cinema’s pioneer days and could be in many ways linked to a reaction to modernity. Interestingly she will discuss how the myth of the mad scientist is still controversially pedalled and marketed by science communicators as a means of widening participation today. The talk will be illustrated by visuals, posters and rare films from the early 1900s. This talk is part of the Twentieth Century Think Tank series. This talk is included in these lists:
Note that ex-directory lists are not shown. |
Other listsProbability Isotope Coffee: Geochemistry and Petrology Seminars Department of Earth Sciences Cambridge Global Health Year Extragalactic Gathering Centre Family Research/Psych Taking Place: Affective Urban GeographiesOther talksTODAY Adrian Seminar: "Starting new actions and learning from it" Transcriptional control of pluripotent stem cell fate by the Nucleosome Remodelling and Deacetylation (NuRD) complex Uncertainty Quantification of geochemical and mechanical compaction in layered sedimentary basins “Structural Biology and Chemistry of Histone Deacetylases in Human Disease and Drug Discover Statistical Methods in Pre- and Clinical Drug Development: Tumour Growth-Inhibition Model Example Debtors’ schedules: a new source for understanding the economy in 18th-century England |