Lately I am obsessed with the tv show "ReGenesis" on hulu, which has everything that I love; mystery, some romance, conspiracy theories and awesome science! However, one thing that drives me absolutely insane is how they portray the process of science. For example, the head guy says: do a PCR, then an hour later supposedly not only is the PCR done but they analyzed and solved the identity of the virus (or whatever it is)!!! This gets me so upset because not only does a PCR that I do takes like 6 hours, I spend a week waiting for stuff (primers...) to come into lab to set it up and then days analyzing the data!!! Real life is so unfair! In fact, just yesterday very annoyingly I set up a PCR reaction only to find out at the last minute that we didn't have a reagent that I needed in the last step. The whole preparation was ruined. That's kinda how my life goes every day... Also, it annoys me that they don't specify details of what gene they will be analyzing but that's just me being picky right? =) Here are two really awesome funny cartoons on science reality:
http://electroncafe.wordpress.com/2011/05/04/scientific-process-rage/
http://xkcd.com/683/
TV and reality are two different things. The show would be interesting if it portraited things as they are in real life. It would be slow and the bad guy would be away. Plus people would have a negative view of science that it's slow and inefficient. This way people marvel as science and future generations decide to dedicate their lives to it, like you!
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