This course will examine the medium of film as a window on the relations between art, science, and American society in the 20^th-century. Some of the questions we will seek to answer are: How have technological advances in film (both still photography and motion pictures) contributed to new understandings of scientific knowledge? Where do these understandings lie in relation to larger debates about the philosophy of visualization (in science and society-at-large)? What impact have ‘scientist-hero’ and ‘scientist-villain’ movies had on public understandings of the scientific enterprise – and ultimately, what does this tell us about the relations between science and art as cultural activities? Specific topics will include: early film use in science and art (the camera obscura and lantern slides); the technology of moving pictures as developed by Edison; MGM’s series of scientist biopics of the 1930s and 40s; nature films preserved at the American Museum of Natural History; early scientific horrors (Frankenstein) and pre-war, post-war, and contemporary science fiction films (Day the Earth Stood Still); the government public health films of the 1920s and 1940s; Stanley Milgram’s film of subjects undergoing his 1963 Obedience experiments; and Jane Goodall’s landmark documentaries for National Geographic.