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.