Last night I watched the 2011 film Contagion on DVD (directed by Steven Soderbergh) and thought what an excellent example it makes of a text that, at the same time, seems to debate public trust and constructs scientists as trustworthy, ethical and even heroic. The film is clearly based on the real life scenario of the 2003 Sars epidemic outbreak but pushes this story to extremes. The idea of scientific knowledge as progress prevalent in the film narrative is further promoted by Dr Ian Lipkin, the medical/scientific adviser of the film, in his interview to the Science section of the Guardian/Observer : Continue reading →