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popular science humor, fossil reconstruction . Indeed, half the book is devoted to jokes based on paleontology. His best involve both sight gag and word play, such as his dinosaurs Diplocephalus and Diplocaudus. Other of his visual jokes must be seen to be appreciated, particularly his advertisement for a correspondence course in quantum mechanics. His satiric comparison of the geo-, helio-, ethno- and egocentric theories of the solar system is humor anyone can appreciate. This book is not just zany humor, however. There is some slight justification for Weller’s mockery of particle physicists, with his discussion of quacks and their corresponding anti-particles, quirks. His glib description of a rain probability gauge is a joke as much at the expense of quantum mechanics as meteorology. I consider his exposition of the evolutionary and creationist philosophies the best section of the book. Weller’s proposed synthesis of the two is hilarious and leads me to a testable hypothesis: that evolutionists will find it more amusing than creationists. These and other points ofhumor touch on a more general issue that pervades the book: the differences among what scientists actually practice, the images of science used in corporate advertisements, and the superstitious attitudes toward science that even some otherwise sophisticated elements of the public hold. The basis for much of Weller’s satire is the conversion of the dynamic system of science into a symbol of certainty and authority by some and a mere livelihood by others. It is easy to say that such people are found in politics, the military or business. Unfortunately they include many in education and some in science as well. This book contains both blunt and subtle reminders that science, like other human institutions, has its share of opportunists, careerists and charlatans. Discovery and Invention. Jim Ballantyne and Cathy Grant, eds. British Universities Film and Video Council, U.K., 1985. €3.50 (members), €7.00 (non-members). Reviewed by Michael Clarke, Glebe House, School Hill, Stratton,Cirencester GL72LS, U.K. First published in the British Univrsities Film & Video Council Newsletter, May (1985). Reprinted by permission. This note was stimulated by the writer’s admiration of BUFVC’s initiative in producing Discovery & Invention-A review offilms and videos on thehistory o f science and technology,and, in particular, for the pertinacity of Cathy Grant and James Ballantyne, who must have put enormous effort into this first edition. But it is also a grouse, called up by the very excellence of the publication, against the whims of sponsors, the inconsistences of governments and broadcasters, and the failure of us all to bring about statutory deposit of film and video productions and change the sepulchral character of the [British] National Film Archive. Why this complaint? The first thing about the publication that one notices, if one has had any acquaintance over the years, as maker or user, with documentary film and television, is the gaps in the entries: the omission of dozens of films of high relevance and quality. The fault does not lie at the editors’ door; very reasonably, they have restricted their purview to films and videos which are actually available at present. As a result, very many sponsored films and broadcast programmes which it no longer suits the short-term purposes of their sponsors to distribute are not available. Thus hundreds of man-years of effort by producers and directors are wasted: the work of people like the late Sir Arthur Elton (a passionate historian of technology ), Stuart Legg, Michael Orrom, Peter de Normanville, Denis Segaller, Ramsay, Short-to name only a few former colleagues of the writer-and dozens of other film-makers and television producers who documented with imagination and clarity the advances in science and changes in technology of the last four decades. It is not insignificant that Arthur Elton, who was responsible for much of that activity over several decades, not only invented the phrase ‘the aesthetics of clarity’ but also edited the second edition of the late Francis Klingender’s important book Art and and Industrial Revolution. The documentary film-makers of Britain, and more recently the televisionmakers too, have been among the foremost interpreters of the scientific and technological scene. Much of their...

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