In Science, Bread, and Circuses , Gregory Schrempp brings a folkloristic viewpoint to the topic of popular science, calling attention to the persistence of folkloric form, idiom, and worldview within the increasingly important dimension of popular consciousness defined by the impact of science. Schrempp considers specific examples of texts in which science interpreters employ folkloric tropes—myths, legends, epics, proverbs, spectacles, and a variety of gestures from religious tradition—to lend credibility and appeal to their messages. In each essay he explores an instance of science popularization rooted in the quotidian round: variations of proverb formulas in monumental measurements, invocations of science heroes like saints or other inspirational figures, the battle of mythos and logos in parenting and academe, how the meme has become embroiled in quasi-religious treatments of the problem of evil, and a range of other tropes of folklore drafted to serve the exposition of science. Science, Bread, and Circuses places the relationship of science and folklore at the very center of folkloristic inquiry by exploring a range of attempts to rephrase and thus domesticate scientific findings and claims in folklorically imbued popular forms. " Describing himself as 'a folkloristically oriented mythologist,' the author displays an impressive breadth of knowledge, all of which he presents in an engaging and accessible manner. . . . [the book] should appeal to anthropologists, astronomers, folklorists, mythologists, philosophers, and historians of science and technology. " —J. I. Deutsch,  CHOICE Gregory Schrempp is professor of folklore and director of Mythology Studies at Indiana University and author of The Ancient Mythology of Modern Science and Magical Arrows: The Maori, the Greeks, and the Folklore of the Universe . Science, Bread, and Circuses Folkloristic Essays on Science for the Masses By Gregory Schrempp University Press of Colorado Copyright © 2014 the University Press of Colorado All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-87421-969-2 Contents Acknowledgments, Introduction, 1 Formulas of Conversion: A Proverbial Approach to Astronomic Magnitudes, 2 Leonardo and Copernicus at Aspen: How Science Heroes Can Improve Your Bottom Line, 3 Opening the Two Totes: Mythos and Logos in the Contemporary Agora-sphere, 4 Taking the Dawkins Challenge: On Fairy Tales, Viruses, and the Dark Side of the Meme, 5 The Biggest Losers: A Sensible Plan for Controlling Your Cosmic Appetite, 6 It's a Wonderfully Conflicted Life! The Survival of Mythology in the Capra-Corn Cosmos, 7 Departures from Earth I: The Ferris Wheel and the Deep-Space Probe, 8 Departures from Earth II: The Reason(s) for the Tragedy of Space Shuttle Columbia, 9 "Goodbye Spoony Juney Moon": A Mythological Reading of Tom Stoppard's Jumpers, 10 Is Lucretius a God? Epic, Science, and Prescience in De Rerum Natura, References, Filmography, About the Author, Index, CHAPTER 1 Formulas of Conversion A Proverbial Approach to Astronomic Magnitudes Finally, there it is. Despite its monumental proportions, you approach it from above as the blast-furnace heat calls to mind Dante's descent through the rings of Hell. It claimed ninety-six human lives. With the Great Depression and lean war years in recent memory, my parents' low-budget honeymoon trip was a sort of early post — New Deal pilgrimage to see and, as attested by some fading photos, to stand on this symbol of hope. They purchased a Navajo blanket nearby. I do not recall the Navajo blanket ever wrapped around me, but I do recall it being draped each night, for the first few months anyway, over our first television set — a monstrous Packard Bell monitor about the size of a piano — when that mysterious new technology first appeared in our corner of the world. There is something poetic here: the latest magic object of rapidly advancing technology shrouded in a gift of ancient technology, namely, the loom. I seized an opportunity to see Hoover Dam for myself a few summers ago, this particular infernal descent driven by nostalgia but also by serious scholarly motives. For I saw an opportunity to test a hypothesis that had been kicking around in the back of my head for years but which I had yet to write down. The hypothesis is that large-scale, publicly funded engineering projects inevitability give rise to proverbial sayings, or something like proverbial sayings, of this form: X = Y or X ≥ Y where X is an abstract and/or unfamiliar quantity or measure and Y is a familiar or concrete quantity or measure (very appropriate term in this case, "concrete"). Within this formula one encounters recurrent patterns, especially the phrase "that's enough to" and, in the case of linear dimensions, the phrase "if laid end-to-end"; "football fields" is a noticeably recurrent unit of measure. Immediately, I found confirmation of my hypothesis in the official Hoover Dam Souveni