The Seamless Web: A Blog on Law, Popular Culture and Related Issues

Mad, Bad, and Not Fit To Appear On Your Local Talk Show?

A new book challenges the myth of the crazed scientist. Dennis Meredith comments on his new work, Explaining Research, which tries to train scientists in the art of explaining what they do to the public. Do hard science PhDs need a head-to-toe makeover? Or is it all in our heads?

Doing and Then Learning, Too

His students aren't just scientists--they play them on tv. Alan Alda teaches scientists to appeal to the public with his tricks of the trade here.

Gifties For the Holidays

New DVDs sets available as gifts for the holidays: a new set (vol. 5, part 2) of Perry Mason, which I just finished watching and which finds Perry, Della, Paul and the gang in fine fettle, sets of Boston Legal, (season five) Raising the Bar (season 2), Damages (season 2), Judge John Deed (season 2), and Kavanagh QC, the complete collection. This last set features John Thaw as the inimitable barrister. Highly recommended. Also check out For Counsel's website, which has numerous lawyerly gifties (it also has gifts for other professions).

Rocket Stars? Rockhound Stars? No, Rock Stars (of Science)

So, nerdy scientists, in the tradition of The Big Bang Theory characters, want to be rock stars. From New Scientist:

According to their website, the Rock Stars of Science campaign aims to show the public how scientists and doctors are "rock stars" for making discoveries that save lives. It's to combat the finding unveiled in a 2010 Research!America survey that 72 percent of Americans can't name a living scientist. A cause for concern, said Stacie Propst, vice president of science policy and outreach at Research!America, which offered consulting advice to the Geoffrey Beene Foundation for its Rock Star of Science campaign, "because funding for science needs to be a top priority for our country to survive...if it's not, we will be out-competed in science by other countries."

Well, why not? Aren't researchers allowed a right of publicity? Why shouldn't they spend it in the search for semi-dark matters? Bazinga!

Legal Dramas: TV and DVDs

So, I've been watching the new legal dramas on this season: CBS's The Defenders, rapidly becoming my favorite new show, The Whole Truth (gone, baby, gone from NBC), Outlaw (outlawed by ABC). In addition, the returning The Good Wife is getting better, although I'm not certain I quite follow the subplot involving Kalinda as some sort of secret agent. Really? I liked her much, much better as a wonderful paraprofessional. I've known a lot of those, and liked the idea of a television version getting her due. Even the ditsy Zoey gets things done despite her less than technologically savvy boss, Nick, and he appreciates her although he doesn't always say so.

Elsewhere, I bought a great set of DVDs, the first season of The Murdoch Mysteries. This series features a Toronto police officer of the 1890s, greatly interested in science and the application of the scientific method to the solution of crimes. Everyone in it is great, including Peter Outerbridge as William Murdoch and Keeley Hawes as his love interest, the coroner Dr. Julia Ogden. Great fun, and the stories are intricate and atmospheric. Highly recommended.

 

Law and Popular Culture Blog To Check Out

Great blog run by Guy Osborn here: Dispatches from the Frontline of Law and Popular Culture.