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Voice of America Interview
Marjorie Mikasen: The Bright and Dark sides of Chemistry in
the Movies VOA Serbian Service Broadcaster: Branko Mikasinovich Interview aired August 30, 2009 Duration: 4 minutes English Transcript
Serbian American
author Marjorie Mikasen and her husband Mark Griep have written the book ReAction! Chemistry
in the Movies The coauthor of the book talks to Glas Amerike BM: What prompted you to
write this unique book about chemistry and the movies? MM: Our book looks at the
dark and bright representations of chemistry in 110 movies. It takes its 2
part structure from the most famous chemist in the movies, Dr. Jekyll. But it
was another movie chemist, Elvis Presley, who gave us the idea to write the
book. About 9 years ago we were watching Clambake when halfway through the
film Elvis turned into a chemist. My husband Mark Griep is a chemistry
professor who was looking for ways to reach students in the classroom. We
looked around and no one had written about chemistry in the movies, so we
said why don't we do it. Doors seemed to open for us. We received a generous
grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Public Understanding of Science and
Technology Program that enabled us to visit film archives in L.A. and London.
Oxford University Press USA gave us a 2 year contract to write the book and
we watched over 300 movies for the project.
BM: So far, how has the
book been received; who buys it mostly, and what do you hope to accomplish
with it? MM: We are here in
Washington to sign books at the American Chemical Society national meeting.
This group is the largest scientific organization in the US, so we anticipate
a lot of interest. We launched the book two weeks ago at the University of
Nebraska. It was a sold out event that included a book signing, a reception
and a showing of the 1931 film The Invisible Man. We sold lots of books, and
had a great response. The audience was made up of scientists, chemistry
professors and students, and community people, people interested in science
and its impact on society. Our goal is to show the beauty and complexity of
chemistry; its relation to human problems and human problem solving.
BM: You are also a
painter and designed the art on the back cover of the book. Can you tell us a
bit more about that and briefly about your art in general? MM: I have been painting
in the geometric style for the past 20 years. Chemical ideas and concepts
have often appeared in my work. I wanted to find a visual way to express the
overriding theme of the book. So I created this painting called Jekyll and
Hyde. It is a two part piece with a split down the middle, like the Dr.
Jekyll character himself. Design elements include a filmstrip and the colors
in the painting correspond to the color changes that take place in the Hyde formula
that were described by Robert Louis Stevenson in The Strange Case of Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. There is a stick model of a molecule. This is the
molecule that turns Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde. My husband, Professor Mark
Griep, has figured this out, but to find out what it is you will have to read
the book. ©
Marjorie Mikasen, All Rights Reserved
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