Werner Herzog is back. For his 60th (!) film, the wild man of cinema took his ever-questing lens into Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave, a limestone grotto in southern France filled with animal bones, geological phantasmagoria, and—most important—a gallery of Paleolithic paintings from more than 30,000 years ago. Far older than those in Lascaux, they’re remarkable for their detail, sophistication, and variety. Since 1994, when the site was discovered, the French government has kept it closed to protect its fragile ecosystem. But last year Herzog and a tiny crew were permitted a few days in the cave, and a chance to meet the scientists studying it. The result is Cave of Forgotten Dreams, a metaphysical, three-dimensional trip back in time.

Pop Omnivore spoke with the German auteur about radiocarbon dating, shooting in 3D for the first time, and what a cow-milker’s face looks like, among other things.

The new movie Soul Surfer tells the story of Bethany Hamilton, a competitive surfer whose steady rise to pro took an astonishing turn in 2003 when a shark bit off her left arm. Despite the loss, Hamilton went on to win the NSSA National Championships in 2005.

Though Hamilton’s tenacity is the centerpiece of the film, the plot is set in motion by her encounter with a 14-foot tiger shark while waiting for a wave on the morning of October 31, 2003. The shark makes two appearances: once as a gray blur during the encounter, and again as a pair of jaws that matches the bite on Hamilton’s surfboard.

Despite the great surfing footage, we couldn’t help wondering about shark attacks and their aftermath. To find out, we talked with Marie Levine, executive director of the Shark Research Institute. Here's what we learned.

Shark attacks are uncommon.

In the United States you are twice as likely to be killed by a bolt of lightning than to be attacked by a shark. Worldwide, there are about 70 to 100 shark attacks a year, though the number could be higher. Some shark encounters are not reported. Many shark encounters occur because sharks troll for food on the shore-side of sandbars or between them, spots where surfers and bathers also tend to congregate.

Sharks don’t have hands.

This may seem very obvious, but in explaining why sharks shouldn’t be demonized for biting humans, Levine notes: “All animals explore their environments. Sharks use their mouths to do so where we might use our hands.” Unable to swim backward, some sharks might attack out of fear when they meet a foreign object.

Hunting a shark suspected of involvement in an encounter isn’t wise.

1) You probably won’t catch it. After Bethany Hamilton’s shark encounter, two fishermen heard reports of a tiger shark around the North Shore of the island of Kauai and decided to hunt it. Their motive, according to an article published November 14, 2003 in The Garden Island, was to “protect surfers, fishermen and beachgoers on the North Shore.” The fishermen hauled in a 13-foot, six-inch tiger shark. There was nothing in its stomach except for shark they’d used as bait. Since a tiger shark can travel as far as 10 miles in a day at normal cruising speed, poetic justice would have been nearly impossible to achieve. 2) Even killing one shark adds to the strain on an already endangered population. “Sharks are critical for maintaining the balance of the marine ecosystem,” says Levine. Citing the east coast of the United States as a prime example, Levine explains that where populations of large sharks have declined, the animals they feed off, like rays and skates, have seen marked population growth. In turn, these sea creatures have decimated oysters, clams, and scallops, and strained the bivalve industry, putting people out of work.

Shark surfers in Hawaii have a lot of rules to follow.

Though some shark fishing is allowed, certain species are protected. Furthermore, the state has the most stringent rules on shark finning, in which a shark is captured, its fin removed, and then the animal is returned to the ocean. Hawaii has banned the killing of sharks for their fins (commonly used to make shark fin soup) and the possession of shark fins.

-Margaret Krauss

Fifty years after the fact, details about Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's historic first mission into space are still creeping out from behind a shroud of secrecy. (Check out this post.)

But there is something we'll never know about the flight, even in the age of Wikileaks: What did the farmer's son from Klushino, Russia, see from 200 miles above Earth on April 12, 1961?

More concerned about survival than documentary footage, Gagarin brought back sparse imagery of his monumental voyage—and obviously nothing in full-color HD.

"What Gagarin did is something of galactic significance, and it needs marking in some way other than crackly, black-and-white footage," said film director Christopher Riley.

You only use 20 percent of your brain, says the new film Limitless. But what if you could use it all? The premise of this thriller is that a magic pill called NZT lets users take advantage of 100 percent of their gray matter. So struggling writer Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) can suddenly reach his maximum intellectual potential. He finishes his book. He learns to speak Italian. He becomes a master of martial arts.

So does that mean all of us could be as cool as Bradley Cooper if we only could tap the vast unused parts of our brain?

Ummm, no.

Now it is true that different parts of the brain are used for different functions at different times. But that doesn't mean humans let 80 percent of their brain lie fallow.

"We use all of our brain," says Alex Martin, senior investigator of the Laboratory of Brain and Cognition at the National Institutes of Health. "Saying we use ten percent of our brain is like saying we use ten percent of our muscles."

"There are no hidden or secret regions waiting to be uncovered or released," explains Martin. "How would evolution ever build a brain like that?"&8212;Kerri Pinchuk

What it’s about:  The moral ramifications of bullying. A Scandinavian doctor in an African refugee camp must decide whether to treat the infected leg of a brutal warlord who makes bets on the sex of a pregnant woman’s fetus, then slices open the mother-to-be to find out. Meanwhile, mean boys pick on the doctor’s sweet, braces-wearing son, Elias, at middle school in Denmark. New student Christian befriends Elias. But Christian is full of rage over the death of his mother from cancer. He beats one bully with a bicycle pump---and wants Elias to help him bomb another bully’s van.

What the title means: It’s what the doctor tries to create in Africa, and what all the characters want and seem doomed never to find.

Danish flavor:

a) Bikes everywhere

b) Blond hair everywhere

c) The use of the term “Swede” as an ethnic insult

Oscar-worthy moment: Moments is more like it. The doctor and his wife, separated because of his indiscretions, reflect on their lost love during an intimate cellphone conversation (Alec Baldwin wasn’t kidding when he said actress Trine Dyrholm was the world’s best). The two boys share confidences, perched on a towering waterfront silo. An African man with haunted eyes peers through a fence and begs the doctor not to treat the warlord.

Who’d star in the Hollywood remake: Mark Ruffalo, in blue contacts and a sandy-colored wig, as the doc. Laura Linney as the wife. If only Michael Cera were 14 again, he’d be perfect as Elias. And in a rare dramatic turn, Justin Bieber as Christian the motherless son.

-Marc Silver

Sanctum, the epic 3-D movie produced by James "Avatar" Cameron, follows a team of elite adventurers trapped by a cyclone. Their only escape route: a descent into the unknown world of an underwater cave. Critics have been unkind, but the setting of the film is fascinating. We caught up with veteran National Geographic photographer and cave expert, Stephen Alvarez, who most recently photographed bats in a cave for the magazine, to hear his take on exploring the netherworld.

Snakes are the unbilled stars of the new Coen Brothers’ western, True Grit. They’re talked about, given lots of screen time, and you’d better believe that they bite. We asked snake expert Terry Philip, curator of reptiles at Black Hills Reptile Gardens in Rapid City, South Dakota, to shed light on the movie depiction of the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake.

Spoiler alert: This post reveals the identity of the movie’s snake-bite victim.

The new movie Black Swan is a tale about human ballet dancers, but it does raise an interesting bird question: What’s the deal with nature’s black swans? To find out, I interviewed two experts: former National Geographic grantee Bill Sladen, who now lives in Virginia, and New Zealander Murray Williams. The first thing I learned is that experts do not know why some swans are black. Here’s what they do know:

You have a very strange dream. Where did it come from, and what does it mean? Then you think you wake up … but how do you know you’re not still dreaming?

These questions have long been a topic of hot debate. Just ask Sigmund Freud, who believed that dreams are our brain’s way of saying: These are my wishes! Or Allan Hobson, the Harvard professor of psychiatry, who theorized that dreams are our attempt to make sense of random neuron firings during sleep. Or maybe the ancient Hindus were right: Life is but a dream.

Now Hollywood has presented its own dream theory.

In the hit movie Inception (above), a character tries to enter another character’s dreams and plant an idea. Various ideas about dreams are in the mix: Dreams within dreams, dreams that seem to start in the middle of the action rather than at the beginning, and dreams that are influenced by external stimuli—stuff in the real world, such as an Edith Piaf record.

To find out the truth about dreaming, we interviewed Robert Stickgold, director of the Center for Sleep and Cognition at Harvard,who studies the connection between sleep, memory, and learning.

Tonight marks the start of the Imagine Science Film Festival in New York City, a weeklong event full of short and long features with a scientific bent. Though many of the films are fictional and fanciful, they all have a bit of science in their DNA.

Here are half a dozen short selections that can teach you something in just a few minutes.

—Brad Scriber

Still, the film made me wonder about these ill-reputed creatures. Herewith, a piranha primer.

Indeed, Hubble's story definitely has all the elements of a Hollywood epic: high expectations dashed by a crushing blow, a comeback against all odds, a tragic loss, and ultimate success through hard work and camaraderie.

But callooh, callay, what’s this you say? Not familiar with Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, flamingo mallets, and ravenlike writing desks? Well, National Geographic is here to help. In 1991 the magazine published a story on Dodgson, better known by his pseudonym Lewis Carroll. The author of our story informed me that her lifelong love for Dodgson’s craft and ability to play with words had motivated her to pitch the piece. She retraced the geographic world that inspired the author and his stories, viewed the original manuscript at the British Library, and met with the granddaughter of the Alice. Read Cathy Newman's story. Marvel at Sam Abell's photographs and the wonderfully illustrated story map of Wonderland by William H. Bond. Not only will you get an excellent primer for the adventures and characters you’ll see in the movie, but you’ll also learn that, in fact, 'twas brillig, and the slithy toves did National Geographic in the wabe. Whatever that means.

Fans of True Blood must wait until September 13 for the season finale of the vampire saga. In the meantime, they can get their platelet fix from Thirst, the newest movie from Korean "master of vengeance" Park Chan-wook. Like True Blood, this films goes into overdrive with blood spatter and bedroom scenes, earning its R rating.

Every Star Trek fan knows that ye canna change the laws of physics. But if you're director J.J. Abrams, you can change the U.S.S. Enterprise.

For the new movie, designers wanted to give the original NCC-1701 a "hot rod" look. The sleek curves and stylized interior will no doubt raise a few pointy eyebrows. Abrams has said the revamped bridge—a blur of bright white walls, flashing lights, and broad expanses of chrome and glass—makes the modernistic Apple store look "uncool." (Apple store fans may not agree.)

We asked the film's designers and model-makers how they re-imagined the iconic starship, and talked to a NASA engineer about the ways the ship does and does not fit current standards of spacecraft design.

In the latest Dreamworks animated feature, Monsters vs. Aliens, a radioactive meteorite crashes a wedding, causing the bride-to-be to outgrow the church. The movie, a throwback to ‘50s-era B monster flicks, made us wonder if space rocks have ever caused real harm to humans. We reached out to Owen B. Toon, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Colorado at Boulder.