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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 21059
[Science]
Date Posted:
8/18/2009
2:38:38 pm EDT
Wvox Stats
Views: 3,235
RSS: 24,083
Comments: 8
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Does Harry Potter Belong At Boston's Museum of Science?
Author: Scott Kirsner (blog) Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Title: DOES HARRY POTTER BELONG AT BOSTON'S MUSEUM OF SCIENCE?
At the Museum of Science on Sunday evening, I overheard a family talking excitedly about the "Harry Potter" exhibit that's coming in October. They were from California, and they joked that they might have to plan another trip to Boston to see it.
Clearly, the Museum of Science has struck a pop culture chord by inviting the young wizard and his friends to the Hub for a four-month stay.
But there's something about spells and potions, witchcraft and wizardry, Philosopher's stones and dark arts, that feels retrograde and anti-science to me.
I want to be clear: I'm not against Harry in any way, or the idea that fantasy is an important part of our culture. But what does magic have to do with science?
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Community Thoughts: There are 8 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| What Does Harry Potter Have To Do With Science? | Aug 21st. at 11:20:55 am EDT
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Fred Lawrence (Kansas City, Kansas) - Email Me
First, a disclaimer: I've read all seven of the Harry Potter books with great enjoyment and have seen all of the movies. The books tell an excellent story and I would recommend them to anyone, especially to children who are still developing their world-views. The books give the reader much food for thought.
But I still have the question of just what in the world Harry Potter has to do with science? There's very little in the books that seems in the least scientific.
At Hogwarts, students learn magic as a collection of recipes, entirely empirical. They don't seem to learn any underlying principles behind that magic. Science is far more than a collection of recipes!
It seems that logic and mathematics apply to all possible worlds that we can think about, because if they didn't apply to those worlds, we would have no tools with which to think about them. In the first book, Hermione, who was Muggle-born, comments that most of the greatest wizards didn't have a bit of logic. She then proceeds to solve a rather difficult logic puzzle. (This was left out of the movie.) In addition, mathematics isn't one of the subjects students at Hogwards study. How do they cope with the rather strange Wizarding currency which is divided up into uncomfortably large prime numbers?
I can understand why the museum would host such a popular exhibition in order to boost attendance and thus make money, but there's something "weird, bizarre, disturbing, and very very strange" about having Harry Potter at a science museum.
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| In The Wizarding World, Magic IS Science | Aug 20th. at 2:40:53 pm EDT
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Stormsinger (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) - Email Me
Magic in Harry's world is the result of the careful repetition of formulae perfected by trial and error, hypothesis and analysis. No one just woke up one morning with "wingardium leviosa" or "expecto petronum" in their heads. They worked at it. They tried and failed and tried again. They observed their world and figured out how it worked. They stretched the limits of the known and expanded them. Sounds like science to me.
I can write equations on a chalk board, but I don't grasp them like a mathematician does. I work on a computer every day, but I can't write a program. I like music, but I'm no composer. Each of these are "scientific" in that they all consist of repeatable, observable phenomenon. But a magician, a mathematician, a programmer and a composer have the same thing in common -- the talent to make this science work for them in a way that seems "magical" to those of us without the talent.
We'll be at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry tomorrow...
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| Just Saw It In Chicago | Aug 19th. at 4:04:34 pm EDT
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SnowRaven (Medina, Ohio) - Email Me
We just saw this exhibit last weekend at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry and really enjoyed it. Many of these types of museums also house an IMAX theater which is showing Half Blood Prince as well - a natural venue fit for the exhibit.
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| Science Is Rooted In Magick | Aug 19th. at 10:31:17 am EDT
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stalkingwolf (Bullhead City, Arizona) - Email Me
modern day science had its birth in the Magick of the 12th and 13th centuries.
Modern Medicine was born from folk remedies . Many medicines
still use the same active ingredients as the folk remedies. Some have been reproduced in labs at a higher strength like aspirin , others
still use the derivitives of the original herb or plant a couple that come
to mind are the opium poppy and belladonna.
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| Magic Is Science... | Aug 19th. at 9:54:15 am EDT
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Lady Feyline (Gardner, Massachusetts) - Email Me
in a sense. Really, magic is just something we haven't learned to explain. When we understand and can explain something we call it science.
I have visited the Boston MOS for 30 years. I like to go at least once or twice every year or so. I saw the Star Wars exhibit, missed LOTR, sadly. I can't wait to see HP. I never once thought about whether it was "appropriate" for the museum. Yes, it is a SCIENCE museum, but first and foremost, it is a MUSEUM. I'm happy to see all kinds of exhibits there. I think I remember several that could be more accurately described as "historical" or "art" than "science," but I enjoyed them as well.
And it's true, I don't know ANYone who would go and just see the one exhibit. We always go through the main exhibit halls and try to catch a Planetarium show or Omni show too. We make a whole day of it, as I think most people do.
Everyone needs to relax and just enjoy it...or not, as they wish.
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| Consider The Fact. . . | Aug 19th. at 8:25:01 am EDT
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Dynnys Derwydd (Lubbock, Texas) - Email Me
. . .much of what we call science today began in magick and the esoteric. Astrology led to astronomy; alchemy led to chemistry. Many of the early scientists were students and practitioners of the esoteric arts. Therefore magick and science are intimately linked.
Gnothi Seauton
honi soit qui mal y pense,
Dynnys Derwydd
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| ... | Aug 18th. at 8:55:28 pm EDT
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Draken (Bronx, New York) - Email Me - Web
If they'd pull their Oxfordized heads out of their arses, they'd know that some things can't be explained by science as of yet. I just wouldn't put any stock in works of fiction like the Harry Potter series or the Wholly Buy-Bull.
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| In A Word, Yes.... | Aug 18th. at 3:43:39 pm EDT
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bigcat (peoria, Illinois) - Email Me
There is a difference between hosting a fantasy exhibit and one of "creationism". The fantasy exhibit doesn't try to pass itself off as a literal truth in order to counter a science some believe is antithetical to established religious belief. And people dig the exhibits, especially their favorite themes and will come to see them. Their money helps advance the cause of real science.
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