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Barnard
Professor Discusses "The Science of Harry Potter"
at Tribeca Film Festival
Barnard
professor Timothy Halpin-Healy discussed "The Science
of Harry Potter"—how science, technology, and standard
"muggle" physics becomes practical movie magic onscreen—at
the Tribeca Film Festival on May 9. Other participants included
Roger Highfield, Science Editor at Daily Telegraph
(UK) and author of The Science of Harry Potter (Viking-Penguin
2002), and David Andrews, animator/special effects specialist
at Industrial Light and Magic (and the inventor of "Dobby"
from the Harry Potter films). The panel was presented by The
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
The discussion was kicked off by Highfield presenting an overview
of the Harry Potter story line, including the many instances
of anti-gravity exhibited in the films, such as Harry and
his teammates zooming around on flying broomsticks in a Quidditch
match, Ron Weasley’s enchanted turquoise Ford Anglia,
and Hagrid’s flying motorbike.
Professor Halpin-Healy, a physicist, observed that many of
the extant levitation devices do not rely upon anti-gravity
magic, but rather employ a second force (often electromagnetic)
to counterbalance the effects of gravity, noting that it’s
"still magic, but of a different sort!" To support
his claim, Halpin-Healy performed for the audience a 19th
century levitation experiment in which a cooper ring eerily
floats in the air in the absence of direct mechanical intervention.
(By dipping the ring in liquid nitrogen and dropping its temperature
to -196 degrees centigrade, the ring not only levitates, but
can be propelled vertically to considerable height. The experiment
may be viewed by clicking here: http://www.hfml.kun.nl/levitation-movies.html
Other topics included:
- Harry
Potter’s "invisibility cloak," (which is
not so out of the realm of possibility as it may seem. A
Japanese scientist has recently devised a similar garment.
Take a look at http://urania.barnard.edu/~mass/inviscloak.gif)
and other forms of natural and adaptive camouflage, such
as that employed by chameleons, glass catfish, and cuttlefish.
- J.K.
Rowling’s fictional "sorting hat" which reads
minds and determines in which "house" (e.g. Slytherin,
Gryffindor) the future wizards will reside. Halpin-Healy
noted that future forms of magnetoencephalography based
upon highly sensitive tools capable of measuring tiny magnetic
fields, may very well track our basic and more complex thought
processes.
- Hoot
owls that deliver parcels and can remember addresses. Scientists
have established that many bird species, particularly of
the migratory sort, have redundant navigational systems,
based upon recognition of constellations such as the Big
Dipper, internal biochemical magnetic compasses, and an
ability to distinguish between ordinary and highly polarized
sunlight.
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