Snakes have a unique talent for getting into tiny spaces and through cluttered environments. Join us for this special Science on Screen® presentation of Snakes on a Plane featuring a post-screening discussion with Dr. Henry Astley, Associate Professor in the Biomimicry Research & Innovation Center at the University of Akron. Learn how snakes perform these amazing feats without feet and how real snakes are helping us learn to make better robotic snakes.
About the film: FBI agent Neville Flynn (Samuel L. Jackson) boards a flight from Hawaii to Los Angeles, escorting a witness to trial. An on-board assassin releases a crate of deadly serpents in an attempt to kill the witness. Flynn and a host of frightened passengers and crew must band together to survive the slithery threat.
About the speaker: Dr. Henry Astley is currently an Associate Professor in the Biomimicry Research & Innovation Center at the University of Akron, with research interests in comparative biomechanics and bio-inspired robotics, particularly the locomotion of snakes, frogs, and early tetrapods. He originally studied Aerospace Engineering, getting his B.S. from Florida Institute of Technology in 2001, before switching to biology at the University of Cincinnati, where he got a second B.S and an M.S in biology (2005 & 2008) while working on arboreal snake locomotion. Dr. Astley studied elastic mechanisms in frog jumping during his Ph.D. at Brown University (2013), followed by post-doctoral work at Georgia Institute of Technology on sidewinding locomotion in snakes.
Science on Screen is an initiative of the COOLIDGE CORNER THEATRE, with major support from the ALFRED P. SLOAN FOUNDATION.