Ghostbusters Employed an Experimental Nuclear Physicist to Draft Equations for the Movie – This is Her Story
Rad account by Lindley Winslow for the Sloan Science & Film blog that tells the backstory for how she was involved with the equations seen on screen in the recent Ghostbusters reboot.
It all started with an email I almost deleted: “Feature Film FLAPJACK.” Before moving to MIT, I was a professor at UCLA for a few years and for fun had talked to a couple of screenwriters when they had emailed me. This time it was April and I had been at MIT for 4 months: I had two labs to setup, my first MIT course to finish, and to top it all off I was beginning to go from some-what pregnant to very pregnant with my second child. Thankfully, I kept reading the most recent email and learned that FLAPJACKwas the codename for the GHOSTBUSTERS reboot. The movie was featuring women, specifically particle physicists, in the lead roles. The director Paul Feig wanted everything to be realistic, up until the ghosts showed up, and they needed some expert help.
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