Blogs by the students of Bio-movies at Habib University

  By: Aaron Lucas Soares The Red Death: Bigger and Badder than Ebola? Remember the Ebola virus? That viral disease that broke out in Western Africa back in 2013? Still don't remember? Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't. The Coronavirus virus pandemic has become the talk of the century, overshadowing Ebola. But are these the only infections we should be worried about? The movie, 'Osmosis Jones', gives us a glimpse of how deadly any infection can be if given the opportunity - even worse than Ebola!  Now I don't want to scare you, but rather educate you. Many of these diseases can be avoided by simply taking care of yourself and leading a healthy lifestyle.  In the movie, Frank (played by Bill Murray), contracts a disease named Thrax by eating an egg covered in chimp saliva that had fallen to the ground in the zoo. Thrax (also known as the red death), is based on the bacterial pathogen: Bacillus anthracis, which causes anthrax ( https://www.cdc.gov/ant

By: Hanaa Gatta Osmosis Jones The movie Osmosis Jones centers on Frank, a messy zookeeper and father to a young girl, Shane. The movie begins with Frank eating a germ-ridden egg and falling sick. The movie takes us inside the human body for a tour of the uncharted neighborhoods of the body like the Lower East Backside or useful organs such as the Puke Button. These places are depicted in colorful and vivid animation, and then we switch to live-action for the outside of the body in question, i.e: Frank. He follows the Ten-Second Rule, which teaches us that if food is dropped and stays on the ground for less than 10 seconds, it's still safe to eat. In the case of the hard-boiled egg in question, he might also have reflected that before the egg dropped, he had to pry it from the mouth of a monkey. The egg is crawling with germs, sending the inside of his body into emergency mode, and thus putting Franks's life in danger. At the cellular level, we enter the world inside his body, i

By: Sara The Vincenzo Natali directed Splice, released in 2009, is very much similar to a 1990s experiment and is most probably inspired by it as well. Just like it is shown in Splice, scientists carried out an experiment in the 1990s and they found out that a mouse had grown a human ear - something they had not been looking forward to. Strange, no? While many of us do not know enough about scientific stuff, we should never rule out the possibility that what is shown in a sci-fi movie might have a traceable similar experiment done in the past or may end up becoming a reality in the future. We had not thought about that slate thingy that was frequently used in Star Trek. But we all use tablet PCs today. This blog, however, is not about how things that are shown in the movies have happened before or might happen in the future. Sex change - as shown in Splice - is very much real and can happen but, if you have seen the movie, the entire Dren experiment was carried out in private. Those wh

By: Hanaa Gatta The field of genetic research can yield new treatments for deadly diseases and foods that are more nutritious; but tinkering with the building blocks of life could also lead to a much darker, more dangerous outcome. That's what happens when a couple of geneticists scientists go just a bit too far in the new science fiction film Splice, Clive (Adrien Brody) and Elsa (Sarah Polley) specialize in creating hybrids of species at their company, N.E.R.D (Nucleic Exchange Research and Development). The experts at splicing together genes of animals and humans for research into new, life-saving medicines; but the line they dare not cross is to splice human genetic material into an experiment. It's a temptation their curious minds can barely resist. We learn that Elsa and Clive have created two animal hybrids - Fred and Ginger - a pair of amorphous blobs that can be harvested for proteins useful for drug manufacture. The scientists are now trying to sell their idea of intr

By: Aimen Imtiaz DON’T RELY ON MOVIES! Contagion (2011) Source: https://www.google.com.pk/search?q=contagion+movie+poster&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjUo6ad1PDsAhVL2xoKHcsBC6wQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=contagion+movie+&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQARgAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADoECAAQQzoHCAAQsQMQQzoFCAAQsQNQqbMKWLzFCmDFzQpoAHAAeAGAAY4EiAH6IpIBCzAuMS41LjIuMi4zmAEAoAEBqgELZ3dzLXdpei1pbWfAAQE&sclient=img&ei=FrGmX9TALsu2a8uDrOAK#imgrc=OM9TE65tqtZuZM For those of us living in the happy bubble Contagion (2011) created for us in terms of an all to the quick production of vaccine and the heroism of self-experimentation, this is not going to be very fun. However, since my bubble was popped it’s only fair, I help do the same for others. Boohoo! Virus Outbreak occurs and Viola! You have a vaccine! Really? Is it that simple? In the movie, we see how a vaccine is created and is being delivered to the population within approximately two months of identification of the MEV-1 virus.

By: Muznah Masood Khan The sci-fi dystopian movie Gattaca is a futuristic film that posits a world in which genetic engineering, screening DNA, and being selected for higher positions on the basis of superior DNA is common. They try to show a future where a perfect person can exist without humanistic limitations such as illnesses like heart disease and cancers that we see today. Genetic modification, or making “designer babies” is a process that alters the genetic makeup of an organism according to one’s desires, whether it’s of plants, animals, and even humans. Genetic modification as a concept is generally not new and has been done for thousands of years before scientists even discovered the word “gene” to improve the genetic code of plants and animals for better crop yields and selective breeding. Even before the term genetic modification became popular, unintentional modifications such as a wild wolf turning into a loyal dog kept taking place (Berthold). Today it’s used for things

By: Aimen Imtiaz This movie isn’t as hollow when it comes to science!  Peek-A-Boo!   In a world where we want everything to be efficient and fast, where no one has any time to spare and there’s no place for slow, time-consuming processes, how is it that scientific researches and medical breakthroughs – including the discovery of cures for diseases and the production of vaccines, all such extremely crucial processes – take the most time?! And how is it that WE are OKAY with it? The answer to these questions, that I have just unsettled your mind with, lies our blockbuster, super sci/fi and thriller movie, drum roll, please... HOLLOW MAN! Yep, you read it right! Hollow Man?? Seriously?? Yes! Hollow Man, seriously! This movie, rather subtly, or even without any intention of doing so, teaches us significantly about scientific procedures and the importance of strictly following them step by step. There’s no skipping, no cheating! Hollow Man illustrates the story of a genius scientist Sebasti

By: Soha Aftab  Medicine has no doubt been the key to saving people’s lives throughout history. Diseases like smallpox which was estimated to have killed up to 300 million people in the 20th century and around 500 million people in the last 100 years of its existence, as well as six monarchs. As recently as 1967, 15 million cases occurred a year ( https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-body/human-diseases/smallpox/ ). Such a deadly disease has now been completely eradicated with the help of science. All of the advancements and success in the medical industry has largely been due to animal testing. While most consider science a blessing, this might not be believed by all. Movies vs Reality  While science has its benefits many movies like Hollow Man (2000), Jurassic World (2015) and The Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) have already given us an idea of why animal experiments for research are bad bad idea.  We saw in The Rise of the Planet of the Apes how it was e