To look at his academic résumé, you wouldn’t think David X. Cohen was funny. The son of two biologists, Cohen left his hometown of Englewood, New Jersey, in 1984 to major in physics at Harvard University. He followed up with a master’s degree in computer science from the University of California at Berkeley and was on track to earning his doctorate. Then came Beavis and Butt-Head. Cohen had been an amateur comedy writer since Harvard, and in 1992, one of his scripts landed him a job writing for the now-classic MTV animated series. That was the end of grad school.

This year’s fall TV lineup couldn’t be geekier. With two new network shows breaking out the beakers and several returning shows ratcheting up the scientific tension, it seems lab coats have taken over the small screen, no doubt to the chagrin of grizzled cops, desperate housewives and testy lawyers.

In this gallery, we tell you which shows should top your TiVo queue, which ones are as fun as math camp, and which you can watch with your girlfriend. (Just kidding, we know you don’t have a girlfriend.)

This Sunday at 11 pm, catch a sneak peek at the debut of Food Detectives, the new prime-time television series created as a collaboration between Popular Science and the Food Network. Your charismatic and learned PopSci editors--Megan Miller, Jake Ward and others--join host Ted Allen to investigate, test, and debunk common beliefs and myths about food.

Watch your carbon footprint grow fainter with Sharp's completely solar-run LCD TV. The sleek 26-inch wide, 20 mm-thick prototype made its grand debut this week at the G8's Summit's Zero Emission House. Appropriate timing considering what a hot topic the environment has been at this year's summit.

Its hard enough getting digital TV from an antenna in your house. Forget about in a car. But Samsung and LG aim to change that. In a scary reminiscence of Blu-ray vs. HD DVD, the two companies had been developing similar but incompatible standards (called AVS-B and MPH) for digital TV that can be delivered on the road.

Hmmm...What's this? Looks like a Web-based remote control for your TV. We happened upon this randomly today, and it raises lots of interesting questions. The URL sonyathome.com brings up a Web page that sure looks like it belongs to Pioneer Electronics -- what with the big "Pioneer" badge in the corner and an email function that sends a message from "elite@pioneer.com" ("Elite" is Pioneer's premium brand of A/V gear).

Is Pioneer developing software for Sony? Is Pioneer merging with Sony? Seems unlikely, since Pioneer just formally announced a joint venture to get plasma panels from Panasonic, and already have a deal to get LCDs from Sharp. But then again, Sony also gets LCDs from Sharp. Hmmm.

In the fifty-some years since Sir David Attenborough began producing shows about Earth's wildlife, our planet has changed considerably. Population has skyrocketed. Cities have grown and spread to accommodate massive influx from the countryside. Species have become endangered; extinct. And amidst it all, Attenborough—the famed British TV naturalist and by some accounts the world's most-traveled human—has borne witness.