This weeks ask the Scienceblogger question is: What's the best science show ever?
I'll go with David Attenborough's Life on Earth. I probably would have become a biologist without Attenborough's example, but who can be sure. I watched our tapes of that show until they wore out. I wanted to be David Attenborough until I realized that wasn't really a career description.
The cinematography of all of his work is just astounding, and the man can explain biological diversity with the sort of personable passion that you just don't get often enough.
The show is available in pirated BitTorrent editions if you can't find it at your local library or a reliable online shop.
For shows on TV right now, I'd pick Mythbusters. It illustrates the scientific method and mindset at work in ways that shows about scientists rarely do (think House, M.D. treating patients based on a hunch, or curing one patient because of the symptoms of a patient a decade earlier). Besides, Adam and Jamie blow things up.
There was a great moment in the first season of CSI, where the entire lab gathers around to watch Grissom fire a bullet made of meat. That collective fascination with a new experience was a great moment of why scientists do what we do.
But fans of Mythbusters know that meat bullets don't work, which makes that show even better.
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Mythbusters rock!
Adam & Jamie sometimes ignore controlling variables just to make things go "boom." What's interesting is that when watching Savage & Hineman, high school students suddenly become adept at identifying independent/dependent variables, and at recognizing the need for controls on an experiment.
Season I is available on DVD and through iTunes. Local libraries might also carry the series.
It's an oldie and not strictly a science show but Jacob Brunowski's "The Ascent of Man" series was brilliant.
Thanks for reminding me of it.
I hope it's on DVD.
David Attenborough is good. I'll grant you.
There are a whole host of good science shows that play regularly on discovery Science channel. For my vote, although it's a bit dated, the re-released Cosmos series is one of the best, if not the best.
I also would highly recommend Miracle Planet, a four part series that discusss the highlights of early development of life on earth, the snowball hypothesis, and is narrated by Patrick Stewart!
Cheers.
One of the lesser known things about David Attenborough is that virtually single-handedly he defined the standards for serious factual television. Oh, and it was David Attenborough who was responsible for the comissioning of both Clark's "Civilisation" and "The Ascent of Man".