Op-Ed: Why Science Drama Would Make Great TV

I've never watched Big Bang Theory, but have been told by multiple people that I would love it. I actually really like Bones for the forensic science stuff (used to like CSI when William Peterson was on), and loved the use of science in the Thor movie. Creating a TV show about the life of scientists would be cool (but then, I'm a geek!)! According to this article, there's a film being produced from Piled Higher and Deeper, the online comic - I'm gonna have to check into that!

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Op-Ed: Why Science Drama Would Make Great TV
By Samuel Arbesman Email Author
June 15, 2011

The interplay between the objective quest for knowledge and the all-too-human drama that surrounds it is something that the average viewer has probably heard of, but does not know much about.

And there’s no shortage of real drama to fuel story lines. This show, which I would call The Ivory Tower, would be packed with backstabbing and gossip, glimpses into the intellectual servitude of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, the agony of dissertation defenses, the thrill of scientific discoveries, the ulcer-creating tenure process, professors’ quests for 15 minutes of fame, and, of course, the inevitable lab love affairs.

Episodes could revolve around topics ranging from the conflict-of-interest riddled nature of how scientific ideas are vetted by peers, to those rare but gut-wrenching cases of academic dishonesty and faking data, to the intense deliberations over thesis defenses. Academia is a very non-rational endeavor.

Academics know all too well that their world can be quite vicious and petty, occasionally inspiring, sometimes sloppy, but altogether human. A show portraying this would be therapeutic to those of us inside this world, and insightful to those of us who are not.

Yeah, we watch Mythbusters too (it's my son's favorite).