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We use video particle tracking microrheology (VPTMR) in order to investigate the viscoelasticity of salmon DNA and correlate it to its steady‐flow shear‐thinning viscosity. Aqueous solutions of DNA are tested in a wide concentration range from the dilute to the semidilute unentangled concentration regime. The observed mean squared displacement shows power‐law scaling with lag‐time which is equivalent to power‐law behavior of the complex modulus as a function of frequency that is, |G*(ω)| = S ∙ ω α. The relaxation exponent α changes abruptly with concentration in the semidilute regime from about 1 to about 0.5 which is the exponent predicted by the Rouse model. The quasi‐property S follows the scaling of viscosity for uncharged polymers near θ‐conditions in the semidilute regime that is, with νeff = 0.50 − 0.51. The shear‐thinning exponent observed by viscometry increases gradually towards the value of 0.5 which has been predicted for Rouse chains under flow. Our findings are in agreement with recent studies of DNA solutions where DNA is treated as a model polymer and addresses the low‐molar mass regime of DNA viscoelasticity. This work demonstrates that the combination of passive particle tracking with viscometry can provide a complete picture on the viscoelasticity of DNA‐based biopolymer materials.

The HBO limited television series Watchmen (2019) represents a politically engaged superhero television show, marking a shift in recent efforts to render the genre more inclusive in terms of gender and race. Specifically, in mixing fictional and real events surrounding racial violence, such as the 1921 Tulsa massacre, Watchmen inscribes the potential of the superhero genre to tackle prescient political issues and social anxieties, that became even more poignant in the wake of the 2020 George Floyd protests. The present paper explores Watchmen’s deep resonances with contemporary social and political issues, not only at the level of representations, but also at the series’ production context, and argues that the show marks a key moment in the politicization of the superhero genre.

The Science Fiction Film in Contemporary Hollywood focuses on the American science fiction (SF) film during the period 2001-2020, in order to provide a theoretical mapping of the genre in the context of Conglomerate Hollywood. Using a social semiotics approach in a systematic corpus of films, the book argues that the SF film can be delineated by two semiotic squares —the first one centering on the genre’s more-than-human ontologies (SF bodies), and the second one focusing on its imaginative worlds (SF worlds). Based on this theoretical framework, the book examines the genre in six cycles, which are placed in their historical context, and are analyzed in relation to cultural discourses, such as technological embodiment, race, animal-human relations, environmentalism, global capitalism, and the techno-scientific Empire. By considering these cycles —which include superhero films, creature films, space operas, among others—as expressions of the genre’s basic oppositions, the book facilitates the comparison and juxtaposition of films that have rarely been discussed in tandem, offering a new perspective on the multiple articulations of the SF film in the new millennium.

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