I’m not supposed to give away too much here. But recall that Hollywood loves science, and occasionally we can help them out with an interesting idea or two. So it’s possible that if you were to watch tonight’s episode of Bones (8 p.m., 7 Central, on Fox), our plucky heroes Booth and Brennan could be investigating a murder that makes clever use of expertise in physics. It’s even possible that the murder technique was dreamed up in part by one of our previous guest-bloggers, which might very well be reflected in the name of the research institute where the dastardly deed takes place.
I’ve probably said more than I should already.
I absolutely hate Hollywood! It pollutes the media with antiscience and other trashy stuff!
My favorite example of death by physics is in Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds, as I describe in a post on my blog.
I agree with Quasar about Hollywood. I also hate Brussels sprouts. I get around that problem by not eating them.
Cool. Is this the product, like (almost) everybody in the world, of SEEx?
Eugene
Perhaps this is a good time to mention that the LHC does not, in fact, have a 1 in 50,000,000 chance of creating a black hole that will destroy the solar system, despite what was claimed in the episode.
The notion that scientists spend their free time engaging in numerous casual sexual encounters, perhaps we can let pass . . .
Did they run out of time while filming that episode? The culprit was fingered on the most slender evidence imaginable. Without the convenient tell-all confession during the final scenes, they wouldn’t have had much of a case against the accused.
Wait a sec here. . . . With the exception of poisoning, wouldn’t you say that nearly all criminal related death, be it by bullet, bat, defenestration, or icepick, etc, would classify as death by physics?
(Well, maybe we can include strangulation with poisoning as death by chemistry).
In the interest of self-preservation (since my office is only a few doors down from
“previous guest blogger” I thought it might be wise to find out what kinds of
death by physics he was helping to cook up…) I watched the show. I should have taken my chances with the guy down the hall — would have been much less painful. TV at its worst, and the portrayal of physicists was awful — without exception they were arrogant, rude and cold, unable and uninterested in concealing their disdain for anyone w/o a PhD in physics.
Also not clear how they found time to teleport pondscum when they seemed to spend 90% of their time having sex with one another in every possible permutation (choose 2/5 at random) of the scientists working at the Collar Institute. (none of whom was over the much over the age of 30 — seems to be a bit of an Eloi problem…)
I guess after reading the comments about the casual sex among physicists, this episode must be a product of SEEx.
Physicists helping Fox network?
Sell outs….
Wow, I actually LIKE Bones, but not because of idiotic episodes like the one last night.
Essentially everyone’s comments have been spot on, except that no one has mentioned the INCREDIBLY BAD physics! Leukemia in two weeks from radiation poisoning? Bouncing frozen turkeys (try it, it’ll go SPLAT). PLEEEZE, thanks for turning everyone off to what is usually a quite enjoyable show Sean.
And the dialogue wasn’t even self-consistent. How could Bones not know what a daughter isotope is?
I don’t blame Sean. I doubt he knew ahead of time how bad it was going to be. Well, no more than anyone might have assumed, given the usual result of putting reality through the Hollywood meatgrinder.
But I do wish I’d come back here and read the comments before deciding to watch it myself. UGH.
Former guest blogger claiming innocence here… only suggested a variation of one of the twenty different deaths inflicted. Man, that was vicious. Let’s look at the bright side, it may serve as a cautionary tale for whimsical referees everywhere.
I agree with E. I had never heard the term “daughter isotope” but I accurately guessed at the meaning based on an 8th grade science lesson.
Well, to be fair, that was a standard bit of exposition for the audience’s sake (aka playing The Watson). Pretty much every TV show with a science theme has random characters briefly turn ignorant so someone else can give the audience a quick lesson on basic physics, chemistry, biology or whatever.