This museum exhibit in Boston seems to be trying to make the case that Star Wars "science" and real science are getting closer and closer with each passing day... Yes, folks, we may very well be driving around in our own private little Land Speeder one day, soon... hmm... well, maybe... However, until they make them nifty light-sabers, I will not be convinced - nor satisfied! But of course, light-sabers are to be handled only by enlightened ones, as on the big screen now! For reality sure needs to imitate art if they ever do make them light-sabers - like, commercially!? Imagine them becoming available in an all-American Wal-Mart near you: any nitwit could pick one up, just like, I dunno, just like they buy a gun, for crying out loud! It should be restricted to an elite customer-base, really, for we do NOT want fanatics, lunatics or other "ics" strutting around brandishing weapons like that, now do we? They better ponder the question carefully before making any more of Star Wars "real"... Don't they? hmm?
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Star Wars exhibit: Through April 30 at the Museum of Science, Science Park, Boston;
http://www.mos.org or (617) 723-2500. Details on the exhibit at
http://www.starwars.com. Museum is open Monday-Thursday and on weekends from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Closed Thanksgiving and Christmas. Museum general admission (including Star Wars) is adults, $20 US; seniors, $18; children 3-11, $17. Admission to a separate Millennium Falcon replica, which includes a "jump to lightspeed" and a short film about astronomy and space travel, is separate and costs $5 per person.
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Five extra bucks for the privilege of crashing onto an asteroid or something? Hmm...
22/11/2005 6:04:00 PM
BOSTON (AP) - In a certain galaxy far, far away, fantasy - not physics - rules the frigid wasteland of Hoth and the infernos of Mustafa. Spaceships flit between planets, massive factories churn out robot and clone armies, and circuitry keeps alive the Empire's greatest villain.
Filmmaker George Lucas was present (even posing in front of a Stormtrooper for a snapshot - sheesh, how corny) at the Museum of Science in Boston, Saturday, Oct. 22, 2005, prior to the opening of "Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination," which runs at the museum from Oct. 27 through April 2006.
Here on earth, though, more conventional forces are at work than in the Star Wars series. There's no gravity-defying Force to help change a tire, no light sabres for pruning the bushes, and no landspeeders in the garage for a late-night pizza run.
Light-years still separate science from fiction in George Lucas' six-film epic about the galactic battle between good and evil, but a new exhibit at Boston's Museum of Science tries to show that the fantasies of Star Wars aren't all far-fetched - and some are getting less so with each passing year.
The exhibit, which stirred controversy when it was revealed that the museum had bumped a more conventional science exhibit, uses the wildly popular movies as a bridge to real science, and fire up interest - particularly among youngsters - about the promises of engineering, physics and other fields.
Lucas himself is the first to admit that science was the furthest thing from his mind when he concocted the Star Wars story line 30 years ago about a fascistic imperial army and the feisty rebels who ultimately win the day. Five movies followed the 1977 original, with the final episode released in May.
Lucas said he never considered the science of the Force that binds together Lucas' universe, and the Jedi knights who wield it. There was no reason to explain why cars float, 'droids walked, or how smuggler Han Solo could boast that his ship, the Millennium Falcon, "made the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs."
"In the beginning we kept pushing very hard: this is a fantasy, this a space fantasy, this is not a science fiction movie," he said in an interview at the museum. "There was no consideration about science at all, other than to make things have common sense reality."
But, to his surprise, technology over the years has advanced in ways that were inconceivable in 1977. Humanoid robots can walk and talk. Engineers are creating personal hovercrafts, and today's prosthetics nearly mimic some of the part-human, part-cyborg characters that inhabit Lucas' film.
"I'm a strong believer that if you can imagine it, it can happen," he said. "That's part of the reason I didn't worry about whether it was scientific or not."
The $5 million US exhibit was a collaboration between the museum and Lucasfilm Ltd., Lucas' company. It premiered in Boston in October, and will be open through April.
It offers everything to put a Star Wars buff into orbit. On a recent weekday morning, the dimly lit hall teemed with excited schoolchildren, staring in awe at the collection of light sabres and spaceships, costumes of storm troopers, jawas and tusken raiders, and the towering, glowering figure of Darth Vader.
"Dude, this thing is insane!" one boy said as he looked at a model of the 'droid C3PO with electronic innards exposed. "Can we go to Darth Vader?" a girl called out to her friend as they raced from case to case.
At the entrance rests Luke Skywalker's famed landspeeder, the scuffed and battered vehicle in which he glided over the surface of Tatooine. A peek underneath reveals the wheels that were hidden onscreen.
Its 2005 counterpart is an exhibit about "real-world speeders" under development, such as the Moller m400 Skycar, a sleek red rocket-shaped hovercraft with upturned engines.
Not far from models of a tie fighter, pod racer and star destroyer used in the movie, is a display about the future of space travel, such as the conceptual interstellar ramjet, which would scoop up hydrogen in space to power the ship.
Toward the back of the exhibit, a case displays Luke Skywalker's robotic hand that replaced the forearm that his father, Vader, famously slashed off in episode five. Close by is a station showing the AbioCor artificial heart, ear transplants to aid the deaf, and a prosthetic arm that looks eerily real.
Throughout the exhibit are interactive displays about real-world science. At one robotics station, Matt Froment, a 32-year-old science teacher at Elm Street Middle School in Nashua, N.H., watched Mitchell Gaffney, 13, working toggle switches to make robotic legs walk over a surface, as a gaggle of students looked on.
Froment said he "grew up on the Star Wars," and pounced at the chance to bring his class. He said it can be a battle to interest kids in science and he fretted that they wouldn't be excited. That worry vanished when the class walked in the door.
"I'm quite pleased with the excitement level that I've seen so far. I couldn't be happier. Kids coming up to me saying, it's cool Mr. Fro'," he said. "Some of these kids here are not what I would call my science buffs. To them, maybe it's more like playing right now, but they're getting the experience that I want."
The exhibit is not without controversy. When the museum agreed to host the exhibit, it jettisoned a more conventional exhibit about the life and contributions of Benjamin Franklin.
Lucas shrugs off a question about whether it's problematic to highlight a Hollywood movie alongside real science. Everything is commercial, he said, and if the exhibit creates excitement and interest about science, then it's a success.
"I do not see science as an ivory-tower idea," he said. "I don't believe in the elitism of anything, and I sort of disdain that, actually. I think science begins with young people, and their curiosity, and Star Wars was designed to get kids to think outside the box, to consider other possibilities, and to be curious and ask questions."
Danielle Mannion, 38, brought her TV production class with her from Millis High School. The students were so excited, she said, that some of them showed up on sign-up day 45 minutes before school started to be first in line.
"They beat me to school that morning," she said.
One of those students was Dustin Fresh, 15, who said he'd seen the final episode eight times, including twice in 12 hours when it first came out. He didn't skip a beat when asked what he liked about the exhibit.
"'Cause it's wicked cool," he said. "It's Star Wars."
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Although...
energy-dispersal technology would be useful - not to beam up, down or out anybody... simply to remove them permanently and without a mess! Dubya could be impeached in a cinch with this... Paul Martin too... (Yeah - I don't like George or Paul... not a huge Beatles fan here... *lol*).
I agree that it wouldn't be so cool to have those light-sabers avalible to the general public! Back before guns though, men carried swords all the time! They are not light-sabers but they could still slice and dice a person that let down their guard!
I am a total Sci-Fi nut! So I will not go on and on about it. lol I could ya no, very easily.lol
God Bless You (\ô/) Luce!
((HUGE HUGS))
Countess