Assigned: Friday, Sept. 11, 2009
Due: Monday, Sept. 21, 2009
Points: 30

Please prepare an essay (2-3 typed pages) on biological and physical inaccuracies in the portrayal of size in a story, book, movie, or television show (giant bug films are an ideal choice). Explore the biological implications of the situation presented by movie or book. Don't write a review; base your critique on your new understandings of the biological implications of size. Yes, spelling, grammar, your choice of font, and phase of the moon all enter into the grading. Please type your essays (and help save my sanity). If you have difficulty in selecting a topic, please see me and I'll make suggestions from my vast (and otherwise useless knowledge) of giant bug films and stories.

For another 5 bonus points, answer this question. In the original film Alien, after the creature pops out of John Hurt's chest (emergence of a parasitoid, a phenomenon well recognized by entomologists) and runs around the Nostrumo's duct work, what biological/physical principles are violated by the time the crew next encounters the monster (credibility of the audience is not the correct answer)? In particular, what might the differences in the creature at the dinner scene and later in the duct scenes imply about the Nostromo's cargo and pest status aboard the ship?

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