Stray Cat Film Center Kansas City, MO
Dr. Maria Spletter
Assistant Professor of Science and Engineering, University of Missouri-Kansas City
Teknolust— Science fiction or science fact? Bio-tech with the potential to impact human health
Program Description
Join biologist Maria Spletter, Ph.D., for an exploration of the history of cloning, its pop culture representations, and its real, practical uses. Following Teknolust, Lynn Hershman Leeson’s cult sci-fi film about a bioengineer who creates her own self-replicating automatons, this Science on Screen® event dives into the real-world possibilities—and ethical dilemmas—of replication technologies. Though we're far away from being able to make another Tilda Swinton, other exciting healthcare possibilities remain on the horizon.
Presented At
Stray Cat Film Center Kansas City, MO
Film Synopsis
A bio-geneticist has created a type of Self Replicating Automaton, which looks like a human being, but is in fact part machine and part living organism.
Anxious to use artificial life to improve the world, bio-geneticist Rosetta Stone (Tilda Swinton) downloads her own DNA into her computer and succeeds in breeding three Self Replicating Automatons that are part human, part intelligent machines. The SRAs act as 'portals' on the Internet, helping users to fulfill their dreams. Because they were bred only with Rosetta's DNA, they need the balance of a Y chromosome, or male sperm, to survive. This futuristic comedy puts a hilarious spin on contemporary advancements in science and technology.
About the Speaker
Dr. Spletter grew up in a small, rural community in northern Wisconsin. Early experiences with farming, forestry and conservation biology fostered her innate curiosity about the natural world, and encouraged her to pursue a career in the biological sciences. Fascinated by genetics and development in college, and captured by the thrill of scientific discovery, she was pulled into the world of research and has never looked back. Her research interests lie in understanding how the regulation of RNA processing and alternative splicing defines the structure and function of muscles. She employs a wide variety of experimental techniques, merging classic genetic analysis with live-imaging, confocal microscopy, biochemistry, and transcriptomics. Dr. Spletter received a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from Stanford, a BS in Botany and Molecular Biology at University of Wisconsin--Madison, and is an Assistant Professor of Science and Engineering at UMKC.