UMass Magazine Online

Spring 2004

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The Wildest Place in Boston

Manhattan's Hottest Property

Setting the Record Straight

Around the Pond

A Not So Fishy Tale
Thanks to Adam Summers ’99 Ph.D., Finding Nemo was both factual and fun




	Movie star “Bloat” is based on Professor Beth Brainerd’s pufferfish research (Disney/Pixar)

A TOUCHING STORY OF A wayward young clown fish that winds up in a dentist’s fish tank the Oscar-winning “Finding Nemo” has delighted audiences old and young. But don’t be misled; this fantastic fish story has a strong scientific backbone too.

“No animated movie has ever been this conscientious,” says Adam Summers, the film’s scientific consultant. An assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California at Irvine, Summers holds a 1999 Ph.D. from UMass Amherst.

Pixar, the film’s maker, didn’t just want to stretch the truth to make a good yarn, says Summers. “These folks are driven differently from most animators. They wanted the whole package.” Summers signed on to help educate them about fish behavior and other undersea matters. He is most familiar with how fish, such as sharks, function with cartilaginous rather than bony skeletons, but he was able to put the filmmakers in touch with people who could answer other important questions: How do whales breathe? How do algae wiggle in the waves?

“The cast of characters had depth, emotion and style,” said Summers. “With the addition of good science, we added another level of interest and intensity.”

His professor and thesis advisor at UMass Amherst, Beth Brainerd, agrees. In fact, it was her video showing pufferfish inflation that formed the basis for the animated pufferfish character, “Bloat.” Brainerd heads the biology department’s Comparative Physiology and Biomechanics Laboratory. Summers can’t praise her enough. “She’s the one who gave me the intellectual freedom that made it possible for me to excel.” He describes Brainerd’s lab as “cutting edge, an incredibly vibrant place.”

Alongside his teaching and research, Summers has enjoyed making science available to a wider public with his regular column for Natural History magazine. But he draws the line at some kinds of popular entertainment: He doesn’t have a television set and he rarely goes to the movies. Summers did watch “Finding Nemo,” though, all the way through the final credits, where he is listed as the movie’s “fabulous fish guy.”

Visit Professor Elizabeth Brainerd's web site at: www.bio.umass.edu/biology/faculty/brainerd.phtml

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