AIP science writers recently wrote about the science-fiction movie Interstellar in a collection of online pieces for Inside Science and Physics Today. The new movie, directed by Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Memento), features an all-star cast, including Anne Hathaway, Matthew McConaughey, Jessica Chastain, and Michael Caine. Interstellar incorporates numerous striking concepts from modern physics, including wormholes, time travel, and extra dimensions. Physicist Kip Thorne, a longtime Caltech professor until his retirement five years ago, was the movie’s science consultant and one of the film’s executive producers. Thorne is also the winner of a 1994 AIP Science Writing Award for his book Black Holes and Time Warps, and his new book, The Science of Interstellar, describes the rationales for many of the science ideas used in the movie.
Inside Science used the occasion of the movie, which features a supermassive black hole, to discuss the history of black hole research. The piece contains an interview with University of Maryland physicist Charles Misner, who accompanied the AIP science writers at a preview screening of the movie. Misner coauthored the classic textbook Gravitation with Thorne and physicist John Wheeler, credited with popularizing the term “black hole.” The Inside Science article also links to an AIP oral history interview with Manhattan Project physicist Philip Morrison, who remained skeptical about the actual existence of black holes until his death. The Inside Science piece was picked up by the Christian Science Monitor. A subsequent Inside Science piece examined the reasons for the strong criticism of the movie’s science elements. The two Inside Science pieces have together received more than 23,000 page views to date on the Inside Science website.
Physics Today published a review that analyzed the scientific elements of the movie. A commentary in The Dayside blog explored the film’s doomsday scenario. Together, the two articles have garnered over 8,800 views thus far.
