Interesting story. Just to let you know that I have a new book out about science on the Simpsons. It's called:

"What's Science Ever Done for Us? What the Simpsons Can Teach Us About Physics, Robots, Life and the Universe."

Best regards,
Paul Halpern

Homer: *Finally*... Science has joined forces with Revenge.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096697/quotes

Surely the key quote from Buzz Aldrin was "Second comes right after first!"

Oh, and more on-topic, Homer said "The internet wasn't created for mockery, it was supposed to help researchers at different universities share data sets. It was!"

After the "Bart's Comet" fails to annihilate Springfield and the mob of townspeople cheers in relief, Moe says, "Now let's go burn down the observatory so this can never happen again!"

(Ok, not hard science, but it's about causality).

DD

If you want _real_ science geekery, you have to turn to the best.. _Futurama_...

http://seedmagazine.com/news/2006/05/meet_the_geeks.php
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20060610/bob8.asp

"In a typical scene, two robots meet and discover what to them is an amazing coincidence: their serial numbers are, respectively, 3370318 and 2716057. As the robots high-five delightedly, they explain to their bewildered human companions that both numbers are expressible as the sum of two cubes.

The exchange is a not-so-veiled reference to a famous mathematical anecdote. When mathematician G.H. Hardy visited mathematical prodigy Srinivasa Ramanujan in a London hospital in 1917, he lamented to Ramanujan that his taxi had a very boring number, 1729. On the contrary, Ramanujan immediately replied, that number is very interesting: It's the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways. "

And Zapp Brannigan's starship, the _Nimbus_? DP-1729..

...and then there's the Halloween episode where Homer tries to fix his toaster, inadvertently invents a time machine, and kills off all the dinosaurs.

I second Futurama as the best comedy based (partly) on science.

My favorite moment occurred when the Professor went to a dog race. The race was so close that the announcer said they would need to use the "quantum microscope" (the Olympics only time to the one hundredth of a second after they realized that timing to the one thousandth measured random things like the effect of a water splash). The professor was irate and shouted, "By measuring the event you have changed the outcome!"

I almost fell of my chair when I heard that. Classic!

Greg you make such insightful comments in regards to the Simpsons and the prevalence of science in many of their episodes. Do you use consultants in your research?
In addition another great science related episode is "Marge Vs. The Monorail" the cameo by Leonard Neemoy is most enticing for us eggheads.
GEEK OUT!

Ditto re Futurama. Paul Halpern needs to write a follow-up book, and we need more Futurama.

It makes me angry whenever I think that great show was taken off the air. Well, if anyone needs me, I'll be in the Angry Dome.