The Science Of Monsters

"Previously published as Medusa's gaze and vampire's bite by Scribner"--Title page verso.

A must-have for any fan of horror and fantasy movies—Night of the Living Dead, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Shining (Stephen King), and so many more! If you love film that scares, and want to believe that zombies, vampires, and other deadly and terrifying creatures could be real, let Meg Hafdahl and Kelly Florence, the women behind the Horror Rewind podcast called “the best horror film podcast out there” by Film Daddy, take you to the world where horror and science meet. How would a zombie really decompose in Night of the Living Dead? Are there instances of shape shifting in nature like in The Wolf Man? What is the science behind the night terrors that inspired the creation of Freddy Krueger? Is there scientific data supporting ghost detection like the tools used in Poltergeist? What is the psychological drive that compels cannibals like Hannibal Lecter? How does modern medicine and therapy differ from what would have been offered to Norman Bates in 1960? How are subliminal messages related to propaganda or brainwashing like in The Ring? What would the scientific explanation be for witches possessing people like in Carrie? Was The Blair Witch Project based on any real or imagined creature that came before?” And so much more! Gothic media moguls Meg Hafdahl and Kelly Florence revisit the films from their childhood to discover the science behind the fear. Join Kelly and Meg as they unravel the medical mysteries and scientific marvels that inspired the creation of famous monsters like Nosferatu, Norman Bates, Dracula, Frankenstein, and many more. An approachable and frightfully fun examination of what goes bump in the night, The Science of Monsters will thrill every horror fan.

Are monsters really out there in the big, wide world? Frankenstein, vampires, bigfoot, zombies, werewolves, sea monsters — they’re not real, right? But what if they were? How would science explain their existence? In this totally original book, these mythical creatures are put under the microscope, one by one, and the scientific principles that prove or disprove their plausibility are explained. How does electricity work, and can it ever wake the dead? What’s in our blood, and do real-life bloodsuckers exist? Find out what’s true — and what’s just legend! With frightful fun and just enough ick, the scariest monsters on earth will engage kids so thoroughly in the world of science, they’re sure to be screaming for more!

Could Dr. Frankenstein's machine ever animate a body? Why should vampires drink from veins and not arteries? What body parts are best for zombies to eat? (It's not brains.) This fascinating encyclopedia of monsters delves into the history and science behind eight legendary creatures, from Bigfoot and the kraken to zombies and more. Find out each monster's origin story and the real-world history that informed it, and then explore the science of each creature in fun and surprising ways. Tips and infographics--including monster anatomy, how to survive a vampire attack, and real-life giant creatures of the deep sea--make this a highly visual and fun-to-browse book.

The science behind monsters, real, legendary and fantasy, made alive with color photos, illustrations, and even a board game. Monsters is full of humor and real scientific information.

For centuries, sailors have told tales of sea monsters and serpents that have attacked their ships. Are there such monstrous creatures that live in the deepest and darkest waters?

A Genealogy of Puberty Science explores the modern invention of puberty as a scientific object. Drawing on Foucault’s genealogical analytic, Pinto and Macleod trace the birth of puberty science in the early 1800s and follow its expansion and shifting discursive frameworks over the course of two centuries. Offering a critical inquiry into the epistemological and political roots of our present pubertal complex, this book breaks the almost complete silence concerning puberty in critical theories and research about childhood and adolescence. Most strikingly, the book highlights the failure ​of ongoing medical debates on early puberty to address young people’s sexual and reproductive embodiment and citizenships. A Genealogy of Puberty Science will be of great interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of child and adolescent ​health research, critical psychology, developmental psychology, health psychology, ​feminist and gender studies, ​medical history, science and technology studies, and sexualities and reproduction studies.