''Science Moms'' is a 2017 American

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

about mothers who advocate for science-based decision-making concerning the health and nutrition of children. The film covers

vaccines A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious or malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verified.< ...

, autism, celebrity-endorsed health fads,

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

allergies Allergies, also known as allergic diseases, refer a number of conditions caused by the hypersensitivity of the immune system to typically harmless substances in the environment. These diseases include hay fever, food allergies, atopic dermat ...

organic food Organic food, ecological food or biological food are food and drinks produced by methods complying with the standards of organic farming. Standards vary worldwide, but organic farming features practices that cycle resources, promote ecological ...

, GMOs, homeopathy, and the

appeal to nature An appeal to nature is an argument or rhetorical tactic in which it is proposed that "a thing is good ''because'' it is 'natural', or bad ''because'' it is 'unnatural. It is generally considered to be a bad argument because the implicit (unstate ...

fallacy. Originally only available by direct download for a fee from the Science Moms website, in May 2018, the full film was posted to the Science Moms

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

channel for free viewing.

Background

In 2015, a group of bloggers wrote an open letter to several celebrity mothers, including

Sarah Michelle Gellar Sarah Michelle Prinze ( ; born April 14, 1977) is an American actress. After being spotted at the age of four in New York City, she made her screen acting debut in the television film ''An Invasion of Privacy'' (1983). A leading role on the te ...

and Gwyneth Paltrow, criticizing their anti-GMO stance, and explaining the safety and benefits of GMOs. The letter, in part, read: This letter caught the attention of Natalie Newell, who said "I was so impressed to see this group of intelligent, relatable and reasonable moms standing up for

science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

and against the fear-based culture that seems to have infected the world of parenting." Newell reached out to Jenny Splitter, one of the letter's authors, about working together on a documentary. Following discussion with Splitter and others, Newell went on to produce the film, along with executive producer Stephen Hupp, a professor of

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) is a public university in Edwardsville, Illinois. SIUE was established in 1957 as an extension of Southern Illinois University Carbondale.Butler 1976, p. 18 It is the younger of the two major inst ...

. Newell also served as the director on the documentary.

Description

Featured in the film are writer Jenny Splitter,

neuroscientist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist who has specialised knowledge in neuroscience, a branch of biology that deals with the physiology, biochemistry, psychology, anatomy and molecular biology of neurons, neural circuits, and glial ...

Alison Bernstein,

plant geneticist A plant geneticist is a scientist involved with the study of genetics in botany. Typical work is done with genes in order to isolate and then develop certain plant traits. Once a certain trait, such as plant height, fruit sweetness, or tolerance to ...

Anastasia Bodnar,

molecular geneticist Molecular genetics is a sub-field of biology that addresses how differences in the structures or expression of DNA molecules manifests as variation among organisms. Molecular genetics often applies an "investigative approach" to determine the ...

Layla Katiraee, and

science communicator Science communication is the practice of informing, educating, raising awareness of science-related topics, and increasing the sense of wonder about scientific discoveries and arguments. Science communicators and audiences are ambiguously def ...

Kavin Senapathy. As reported by the Center for Inquiry: "Through interviews with five... moms with careers in science, we get both an idea of what the modern parent has to contend with, as well as some clarity on some of the more hot-button issues around food and health." According to one of the science moms featured in the film, Kavin Senapathy, the film's goal is to provide a counterpoint to wide-spread anti-science misinformation affecting parenting, including anti- GMO and anti-

vaccine A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious or malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verified.

propaganda. In an interview with

Susan Gerbic Susan Gerbic (born 1962) is an American studio photographer who became known as a scientific skepticism activist, mostly for exposing people claiming to be mediums. A columnist for ''Skeptical Inquirer'', she is the co-founder of Monterey Cou ...

for the Center for Inquiry, Senapathy said that for many moms parenthood becomes a large part of their identity. When that happens, "it is easy for purveyors of

misinformation Misinformation is incorrect or misleading information. It differs from disinformation, which is ''deliberately'' deceptive. Rumors are information not attributed to any particular source, and so are unreliable and often unverified, but can turn ...

to exploit

hem A hem in sewing is a garment finishing method, where the edge of a piece of cloth is folded and sewn to prevent unravelling of the fabric and to adjust the length of the piece in garments, such as at the end of the sleeve or the bottom of the g ...

" According to Katiraee, another science mom in the film, “Celebrities are beautiful, with aspirational lifestyles... but we shouldn’t take their parenting advice without scrutiny. Giving birth doesn’t mean our ‘mommy instinct’ is correct. That requires evidence.” Producer/director Newell has said, "The goal of the movie is to provide a counter-narrative to the anti-GMO, anti-vax, pro-alternative medicine culture that has popped up in the world of parenting." She also said that critical thinking is very important, and she hopes ''Science Moms'' could act as a springboard to that end. In her book, ''Whitewash: The Story of a Weed Killer, Cancer, and the Corruption of Science'', Carey Gillam accused the ''Science Moms'' team of having ties to

Monsanto The Monsanto Company () was an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation founded in 1901 and headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Monsanto's best known product is Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, developed in ...

, alleging that they "post favorable industry information on an array of websites while appearing to be independent of industry influence." In a December 10, 2017 interview on the ''Serious Inquires Only'' podcast, Natalie Newell speculated as to where Gillam got the idea that the creation of ''Science Moms'' was influenced by Monsanto. Newell thinks that it may be due to an email written by

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

Kevin Folta Kevin M. Folta is a professor of the horticultural sciences department at the University of Florida. From 2007 to 2010 he helped lead the project to sequence the strawberry genome, and continues to research photomorphogenesis in plants and compound ...

which was obtained through a

Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request: * Freedom of Information Act 1982, the Australian act * ...

(FOIA) request, in which Folta wrote "Moms are people to talk to about this stuff." In January 2018, Parent.com reported on the documentary in an article titled "5 Food Myths It's Time to Stop Believing" and detailed the five food myths that the film takes on as follows: *MYTH: Celebrities are authorities *MYTH: "Chemical" is a bad word *MYTH: Organic means pesticide-free *MYTH: GMO's should terrify you *MYTH: Fear of food is healthy

Release

''Science Moms'' debuted at QED in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

on October 14, 2017. The American premiere of the film was held at the

scientific skepticism Scientific skepticism or rational skepticism (also spelled scepticism), sometimes referred to as skeptical inquiry, is a position in which one questions the veracity of claims lacking empirical evidence. In practice, the term most commonly refe ...

conference,

CSICon CSICon or CSIConference is an annual skeptical conference typically held in the United States. CSICon is hosted by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), which is a program of the Center for Inquiry (CFI). CSI publishes the magazine ''Skepti ...

2017, run by the Center For Inquiry, on October 28, 2017 in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

. Upon its initial release, the film was made available for a fee by direct download from the Science Moms website, but on May 11, 2018, the full film was posted to the Science Moms

channel for free viewing.

Reception

Harriet Hall Harriet A. Hall (born July 2, 1945) is a U.S. retired family physician, former U.S. Air Force flight surgeon and skeptic who writes about alternative medicine and quackery for ''Skeptic'' and ''Skeptical Inquirer''. She writes under the name T ...

reviewed the documentary and described it as taking a novel approach, saying that it "features scientist moms who are just like other moms except that they understand the science... They provide the facts to counteract unreasonable fears." She concluded that "The 30-minute film is scientifically accurate, persuasive, and well-designed, with good production values." and "A lot of people really need to watch this documentary." The film was reviewed by Jennifer Muirhead of ''Weekend Notes'', who said that it "invites discussion about how to find quality information amid the sea of opinions and conjecture at our fingertips and encourages fellow parents to seek out the facts and not to let fear control their lives. It's a great resource for all parents and anyone wanting to learn more about GMOs and organic food." As reported in the NB Herard, "A group of scientifically literate 'moms' is fighting the flood of misinformation on the Internet with a documentary film. Science Moms'',' a 29-minute crowdfunded documentary, enjoyed a well-received world premiere at the QED conference in Manchester, UK in mid October, followed by the U.S. premiere at CSIcon in Las Vegas, NV on October 28, 2017." In its ''Spotlight on Science'' section, Psyongames.com recommended ''Science Moms'' as a film that would "give a voice to the science-minded moms – the women who are too often drowned out by the fear mongers, the shamers, and the CelebMoms." In May 2018, Hemant Mehta reported on the release of the film to YouTube, and said "It's such a relief to know these mothers are out there, raising their kids with reason instead of giving in to the irrational nonsense people constantly throw in their direction."

SciMoms

Following the production and release of the film, the women involved with it created a non-profit, educational organization named SciMoms, in order to continue promoting evidence-based parenting and policy as presented in ''Science Moms''. Additional free material is available from their website.

Notes

References

External links

* *
The full film on YouTube
{{Authority control 2017 short documentary films 2017 films American short documentary films Films about science Films about scientists 2010s English-language films 2010s American films