Comments on: Elevator Pitch Contest

By: Elevator Pitches: Time for Focus-Group Input | Cosmic Variance | Discover Magazine

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:00:47 +0000

[...] to chime in on our contest to choose a science-themed TV show. Recall that the idea behind the elevator pitch contest was that you had bumped into CBS bigwig Les Moonves, and taken the opportunity to quickly pitch a [...]

By: Buddy

Buddy — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 18:06:37 +0000

BLACK PROJECTS
It is undeniable some of the top scientists today are working on government “black” or secret projects. What are these projects and what is the cutting science behind them? We try to separate fact from fiction in investigating these lesser known government projects and the fascinating potential of these new sciences.

By: Armen Shirvanian

Armen Shirvanian — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 07:53:52 +0000

This reminds me of the elevator pitches they gave at a recent tech start-up gathering, where up-and-coming companies had to describe the purpose of their company in the time it would take to go up an elevator with someone. They pointed out that if someone could not explain the role of their company in that period of time, they would have some work to do to be able to market their concept. The experience of riding with others in an elevator is one that is not going anywhere anytime soon, as buildings remain tall, and continue to be built even taller.

By: Federico

Federico — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:41:40 +0000

The race for a future light against light collider promises to solve the mistery of the time dimension.
The two leading scientific blocks convince politicians that whoever gets it first will dominate the future technology.
The war for the top scientists takes over and no labs are safe anymore. Stupidity becomes the best disguise. The dog, Feyny, helps gorgeous and bright Jenny unite the undercover scientists and get help from the future.
Are they just helping the winners? Or are scientific ideals stronger?
And will Jennys lover Mark get away with his plot or will Feyny stop him?

Well, there’s room for a follow up!

By: mr paul

mr paul — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:09:05 +0000

funny, I was busy typing my reality show, just as “too much” was typing too.

Damn, 100 words is hard. I had all sorts of interesting plot ideas for Jenny, Stan, Hank, and others, but had to cut it all out. Which is good. Ultimately, good writers will make or break a show, not little early character sketches. The best shows survive fine when characters leave. And the show can’t really be ABOUT science. Just like MASH and Cheers were not about war or bartending, if the show is to reach a broad audience, it needs to focus on something to which everyone can relate – which pretty much is relationships. That is even true with good reality shows. One if the ideas I had for “The Scientist” was for Trump to appear in an episode and talk about how business is not about money, it is about relationships and passion for accomplishing something. But, in the end, it is still about money. And so it is with science and problem solving.

By: mr paul

mr paul — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:00:00 +0000

The Scientist: Twelve undergraduates and graduate students participate in this reality show modeled after The Apprentice. Each week, they are divided into two teams and assigned a task. Tasks are a mixture of things active scientists in academia and industry or those educated in science but employed elsewhere are likely to encounter, including finding funding for a project, teaching an unruly high-school class, guiding a TV show on scientific matters, explaining a complicated topic to a news reporter, allocating limited funding to a set of projects, modeling a complex business problem, etc. The winner gets a 1-year job at Discover.

By: too much

too much — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:41:25 +0000

“Reality” show in which scientists make project proposals. In order to win funding, they must explain their proposals to non-technical lay people with whom they are forced to live.

When I read “elevator pitch”, I first assumed it was pitch in the navigational sense — sort of like Willy Wonka’s elevator which had pitch, yaw and roll.

By: mr paul

mr paul — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:35:11 +0000

Lab B10: Dr. Tangen loses funding for his lab in room B10 of Edwin Hall. Tangen moves to a new university, and only appears occasionally. We follow the “three tenners” (as they call themselves) as they move on in their lives. Stan, who spent more time home-brewing than studying, opens a microbrewery, and they opt to continue the weekly lab meeting, now on Wednesday night at Stan’s “H Bar.” Jenny changes to a new group, while post-doc Hank gets a job at a local engineering firm. The three share their struggles with new lives, life outside “hard-science”, and have fun.

By: mr paul

mr paul — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:21:34 +0000

Piled Higher and Deeper – a sitcom based on the cartoon by Jorge Cham.

Or, xkcd a bizarre collection of shows based on the extremely funny cartoon by Randall Munroe

By: onymous

onymous — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 18:08:30 +0000

Whatever it is, it should star Kristen Bell and Michael Cera.

By: Elliot

Elliot — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 16:09:23 +0000

Fermi,

Just one more item

you forgot your dog….

By: Fermi-Walker Public Transport

Fermi-Walker Public Transport — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:01:53 +0000

OOps, meant “red herrings”.

By: Fermi-Walker Public Transport

Fermi-Walker Public Transport — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 08:38:44 +0000

Thanks Eliot,

The large number of possible parties responsible for the disappearances means that the plot can have more “red herons” than available from a fishing fleet.

By: Liam

Liam — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 05:10:24 +0000

You know…. i think i would watch any of these shows.

NUMB3Rs was good..for a while. we could definitely use more geeky, action, romance, hilarious, smart, science related programing. The closest thing right now is “Fringe”….the main scientist is quite noble..but also mentally ill. and its more pseudo-science (something the characters have commented on) and total fiction than anything. but its success is heartening, perhaps it will open up the market for this kind of show.

“At some point the public at large has to step up to the plate in terms of scientific and policy literacy, in terms of commitment to education and strong and effective political leadership, and in terms of their own general self-improvement.”

there really hasn’t been anything brilliant on the telly since Arrested Development.

perhaps in addition to the dog, there could be a cat named Schrodinger

By: Claire C Smith

Claire C Smith — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 03:44:04 +0000

Lift goes vertically uuupp all floors then the same lift goes horizontally aacrrooss building on the top floor level (visual).

Says to Les Moonves,

“I just wanted to prove to you that Physics is just inverse square laws and things that go at right angles to other things”.

Claire

By: Sandy

Sandy — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 00:02:56 +0000

First we need a strong and beautiful female lead (a painkiller Jane). She is infiltrating a secret lab where scientists are doing work that they REALLY want to keep secret. Why? For a number of reasons. 1) Some are discovering that everything is due to chance 2) Some are working on new recreational drugs. 3) The few scientists working on meaningful research are subject to constant backstabbing and sabotage from their evil and lazy colleagues. Whatever it is, its not ready for prime time (but that’s exactly where its going). The dog is grafy.

By: astromcnaught

astromcnaught — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 22:02:35 +0000

One last attempt for the T shirt…
This time a drama of conflict; intense, intellectual and personal.

Modern science goes mad?
“High energy science had been stuck for decades. Nothing new could be found. Yet the concensus was dreaming towards new dimensions of thought, new universes of reality. Further and further they plunged, excited by their dreams. Yet one or two brave souls could not agree. They thought they could see through the shimmering gleam of the new mathematics. This story is of the battles, the arguments and the entrenched viewpoints coming to boil. Yet always revealing some view of the new nature of reality which appears to be emerging.”

By: Elliot

Elliot — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 20:09:14 +0000

Fermi-Walker,

I love this premise. Particularly because I can think of at least 5 or 6 possible parties responsible for the disappearance. This would create all manner of opportunities to keep the plots going. Anyway here’s the list of potential abductors I came up with:

1) The U. S. Government
2) Criminal Syndicate
3) Extraterrestrials
4) A fundamentalist/Luddite religious Sect
5) Nameless Powerful Multinational Corporation
6) International Terrorists

This one could be a lot of fun and the opportunity to teach science is implicit in the plots.

Cheers,

By: Fermi-Walker Public Transport

Fermi-Walker Public Transport — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 16:05:45 +0000

World wide, there has been a number of mysterious disappearances of scientists and engineers, who according to colleagues, were on the brink of revolutionizing their respective fields. The FBI has two agents, Ted and Alice, assigned to track down who or what is responsible for these disappearances and why. Each episode finds them investigating the disappearance of one specific person, learning about the research of that scientist or engineer and how this may figure in the bigger mystery. Think X-files, but with disappearing geeks instead of UFOs.

By: HP

HP — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 04:04:29 +0000

The Uncertainty Principle. A serial drama about particle physicists doing a Big Experiment of some kind [NB: I am not a particle physicist [[and the brackets don't count toward my word count]]]. Sure, some of them are socially inept geeks with unusual hair choices, but some are "normal" [whatever that is] and some are drop-dead gorgeous Hollywood types. The season-long story arc involves their efforts to secure funding for the Big Experiment. Along the way, we get to see their passion for the science, as well as their passions for each other. Romances blossom while marriages fail; money and power corrupt friendships. The focus is on the human drama, not neutrinos or the Higgs Boson or whatever. But the background science is top-notch and fully vetted, and the dedication of the scientists to their work is always evident. It's ER meets Dallas, with nerds. Season finale: They run the experiment, and the results are ... inconclusive. And that sets up season 2.