NOTE: Faculty, if you are interviewed and quoted by news media, or if your work has been cited, and you have an online link to the article or video, please let us know. Contact us at news@csusb.edu.
Could dragons exist? HBO's best new show revives an evolutionary debate.
Inverse
Aug. 27, 2022
Stuart Sumida, a vertebrate paleontologist and CSUSB professor of biology who has consulted on movies like “How to Train Your Dragon,” was interviewed for a feature article that speculated how dragons could have evolved if they were real.
“I don't know that they could have flown in real life. If it were the real world, no, [but] in the world of ‘Game of Thrones,’ maybe those dragons are ultra strong,” Sumida said.
According to Sumida, most dragons depicted on TV don’t have the aerodynamic streamlined bodies they would need to be able to fly. Their necks are too long, the spiky protrusions on their bodies would cause turbulence and slow down their flight, and again, they’re way too heavy. The illogical way dragons take off in movies and TV shows also irks Sumida.
“You see the animal lift its wings in a dramatic fashion, and it goes and it lifts off the ground. That's not how things take off. Flapping starts after takeoff. Flapping doesn't cause takeoff,” Sumida said.
CSUSB professor interviewed about extremists who are running for public office
KCBS Radio San Francisco
Aug. 29, 2022
Brian Levin, director of CSUSB’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, was interviewed for a segment about extremists running for local public offices such as school boards.
These news clips and others may be viewed at “In the Headlines.”