Jurassic Park is chock-full of wild attractions: Giant dinosaur bones hanging from the ceiling; Triceratops poop so high you can sled off it; Jeff Goldblum shirtless. But perhaps most exciting of them all are the men in white lab coats with test tubes. Woo, DNA. Yay, science. Okay, listening to scientists prattle on about DNA code is a lot less exciting than a stampeding herd of Gallimimuses, but without the science, there wouldn't be any Gallimimuses, so it's pretty darn important.
Questions about Science
- In Jurassic Park, dinosaurs are brought back to life with DNA found in fossilized mosquitoes. Do you think the science in Jurassic Park is plausible?
- Do you think science will ever bring dinosaurs back to life?
- What mistakes do the scientists make that lead to unexpected results? Are you surprised they make such oversights?
- The scientific community seems to change their perception of dinosaurs every day. One day the Brontosaurus exists, the next thing you know it's gone. How have dinosaurs changed since Jurassic Park was made in 1993?
Chew on This
Jurassic Park (the park, not the movie) would have benefited from having some sort of consultant on staff before starting this whole project. The scientists are only concerned with their accomplishment, a.k.a. creating dinosaurs. They're not concerned with what happens next.
Jurassic Park (again, the park, not the movie) tries to make the science an attraction, too, with the creation of the cartoon character Mr. DNA. This makes it look like they're not taking science seriously. Maybe they should have more respect for it.