All in Science

Godzilla vs. Biollante and the Moment Genetic Power Overtook Nuclear Power as the Scariest Thing On Earth

Godzilla vs. Biollante and the Moment Genetic Power Overtook Nuclear Power as the Scariest Thing On Earth

Michael California
genetics, Science, film

Godzilla vs. Biollante! This week I am joining Derek and Charlotte on the Castle Bravo podcast (all about Godzilla films!) to discuss this fabulous film. Watching it for the first time in over 20 years, I had a lot of thoughts about how the film comments on the theme of genetic engineering and especially the historical context—how genetic engineering was a major fear in society in the 1980s, and how the United States was wielding that genetic power to get a leg up on more technologically advanced adversaries like Japan. I also wanted to discuss the concept of a “chimera” a bit and clear up something I think the film gets wrong here.

The Real-World Science That Underlies Pokémon Evolution

The Real-World Science That Underlies Pokémon Evolution

Michael California
Escapist Magazine, Science, Video Games

I’d wanted to write a piece about the real genetics of Pokemon for a very long time. The only problem is that, despite having breeding and “evolution” and so on, Pokemon doesn’t really use rules of real-world genetics! Instead, “evolution” is much more like another real biological phenomenon: life cycles. In this article, I discuss the standard evolution-by-level and the more unusual evolution-by-stone and how both of them compare to life cycles that exist in real world animals.

How Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey Turns Human Evolution into a Game

How Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey Turns Human Evolution into a Game

Michael California
Escapist Magazine, Genetics, Science, Video Games

I had a chance to sit down with Patrice Désilets, the creator of Assassin’s Creed, to discuss his recently released game Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey for Escapist Magazine. We talked about their goals when creating the game and how they tried to infuse real scientific facts about human evolution and ancestry into the game. Patrice was a fun interviewee and was very candid about their design goals with the game as well as where they want to go in the future with Ancestors.

The Problem with "Gaming Disorder"

The Problem with "Gaming Disorder"

Michael California
Video Games, Science

“Gaming disorder” is now a diagnosis according to the World Health Organization and the response to it has ranged from sarcastic skepticism about gaming being treated like a disability to complete faith in it as truth and a hope that its definition will lead to helping people with addiction to gaming. But on deeper inspection, I have doubts about video games in particular being focused on in lieu of addiction being seen as the ultimate problem facing these people.