I agree that many of their skits aren't particularly sci-fi, but there is something about the swirling DNA decorations and the alien looking backup band that add to the group's otherness. Most of their themes seem to be about the isolation due to technology and modern society.

Anyway, I enjoy the music.

Jack Conte is upstaged in his new video Pedals by two rocking robots. Nothing on the video's Millennium Falcon-inspired set beats the little DJing, claw pumping hexabot. The high energy and catchy Pedals is available for free download with the rest of Conte's new EP.

The hexapod robot featured in the video was made by Matt Bunting, and the singing head was created by Kevin Felstead. Learn more in this behind-the-scenes video:

Horses Inside Out is an organization that educates horse enthusiasts about the anatomy and biomechanics of horses — by painting the innards of the horse on their outsides. These startling and kind of macabre paint jobs give you an inside look at how a horse moves and functions.

Founder Gillian Higgins, a Sports Remedial Therapist, Equine Therapist and anatomist, started giving lectures about horse biomechanics and anatomy, when she realized she kept getting the same questions from her clients about their horses' bodies. So these skeleton, muscle and tendon paintings proved to be an entertaining and memorable way to teach riders and trainers about a horse's anatomy. The education keeps horses safer, and allows handlers to get the best results from training.

Much of the project's success is due to Gillian also being a talented artist and having her primary model being the ever patient Freddie Fox. Gillian gets in on the act herself by sometimes wearing a skeleton suit for demonstrations. The videos and pictures from the demos are educational and cool — if you can get past the occasional flayed horse imagery.

For an added level of coolness watch a clip about Freddie's job in the children's show Animals at Work, voiced over by none other than Torchwood's John Barrowman.

Skeleton painting with some quick vocabulary.

Italian design firm Do the Mutation is creating high-fashion (and high concept) "mutants," using individualized 3-D-printed masks. This blend of a science fiction aesthetic with cutting-edge design is creating something new and unique.

Their current project called Collagene is inspired by the protein collagen, which their website defines thusly:

Collagen is the main component of animal connective tissues; organized in fibers, this category of tissues comprehends the skin.

The theory of the project is pretty interesting stuff. The studio calls itself a "generative design lab," and documents its research into different "generative models," which in turn inform their projects. This particular project scans a model's face and uses it as an input into an algorithm. The designer then uses the facial structure as the base of the mask, and composes an individualized structure of fibrous growth that fits perfectly and seamlessly. The outcome is a blending of technology, organic structure and artificial construction that mimics organic growth. The form of a mask also plays with the ideas of identity and what it means to interact with the world through a prosthetic.

The designers at Do the Mutation very readily cite the influence of science fiction on their work. In a recent post about their show in Venice for Carnevale they cite the movies The Skin I Live In, Strange Days, Dead Ringers and Chernobyl Diaries as visual influences and Asimov's Foundation series and the book Point Omega as literary influences. They are embracing science fiction as a design source.

This video shows how the masks are created, plus here are some more images:

Japanese carved figurines, called netsuke, weren't just cool works of art — they served a practical purpose as wardrobe accessories. A well-dressed Japanese man prior to the twentieth century could display his wealth and taste, with beautiful and intricate carvings of demons and cavorting spirits.

Traditional Japanese clothing lacked pockets but a man still needed to carry around his pipe, family seal and other necessities. The answer was to hang a pouch, sagemono, or carved box, inro, from the belt. The cord from the pouch was tucked under the belt, and a netsuke was attached to the other end of the cord and hung over the top of the belt to keep the entire thing from slipping away. These amazingly detailed and refined figures of demons and spirits are netsuke. Figural netsuke like these is known as katabori netsuke.

The amount of detail on a netsuke can be mind blowing. They tend to be only about two inches tall, and are carved completely in the round. Every detail is depicted, down to the underside of a badger monk’s sandals. The attention to detail breathes life into these fantastical subjects. While netsuke from the wealthy urban areas like Kyoto and Edo (Tokyo) tended to be ivory and those outside the cities tended to be boxwood, the figures could be made from anything, including amber and killer whale’s tooth.

Netsuke were carved to depict any imaginable creature or scene, from mundane animals to gods. But supernatural creatures were very popular as a subject. Depending on the creature, they brought legends to life, served as talismans, or were satirical. The beautiful and amusing pieces below are from the The Raymond and Frances Bushnell Collection of Netsuke at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Top image: Kappa are rather sinister river monsters that like to lure a passerby to the river bank to drown and eat them. They also have a lustful nature, and try to seduce women using transformation and other tricks. In this netsuke the clam is a symbol of female sexuality. The Kappa being trapped is a metaphor for being trapped by lust, according to The Raymond and Frances Bushell Collection of Netsuke.

Dancing Fox — According to Japanese legend, foxes have the ability to possess people or transform into human form. A power they used to either take over a young woman or to transform into a beautiful woman, in order to cause general mayhem and mischief. The playful fox depicted in this netsuke is in the process of transforming into a woman, thus the emphasis on the sensual curves of the body and coy gesture according to The Raymond and Frances Bushell Collection of Netsuke.

Songoku was the Monkey King, who learned Taoist magic and stole immortality and his miraculous staff from the gods. If this is all sounding slightly familiar, it’s because the Dragonball character Goku is loosely based on him. Journey to the West chronicles the Monkey King’s legend as he reluctantly escorts a Buddhist monk on a pilgrimage.

Baku, The Monster that Eats Nightmares — This netsuke was worn as a talisman to ward off evil. Originally from Chinese mythology the Baku was said to eat nightmares and help make the first dream of the new year auspicious. Baku is often carved under the eaves of temples to serve as wards.

Kirin — According to myth kirins only appeared in places of peace and goodness or served as companions to people with pure hearts. Their appearance also heralded the arrival or departure of a wise sage. Though they were peaceful by nature, they could take action to protect a pure hearted individual, and their horns were said to cure poison.

Tanuki Tea Kettle — Tanuki are Japanese raccoon dogs that figure prominently in mythology and art. They have a reputation of having a generous but mischievous nature. There are a couple stories about a tanuki transforming itself into a tea kettle. In both versions, the tanuki vexes a monk until he either gives it to a peasant or a temple. In each end, the tanuki brings luck and riches to the recipient with his playful antics.

Tanuki Disguised as a Priest — This netsuke depicts a tanuki dressed as a priest and sleeping on a Buddhist gong. Depictions of tanuki as Buddhist priests or wrapped in lotus leaves, the sacred Buddhist plant, were popular, because they were a cutting metaphor for someone who fakes the search for enlightenment by wrapping himself in holy apparel.

Fox Disguised as Priest, The fox disguised as a priest is a more complex symbol then the tanuki. While foxes were generally crafty sowers of chaos, they were also messengers of the god Inari, the cultivator of rice and prosperity. Also, if foxes lived to be 1,000 they became celestial beings. So while this could be a fox messing with the foolish, it could also be a call out to its divine nature, or both.

Tengu are mountain goblins. This one specifically is a karasu tengu (crow tengu) according to Bushnell’s. These monsters could shape change between bird and warrior form, and prowled the mountains hunting. They feed on false holy men, who have retreated to the mountains because they were repelled by true holiness.

Chinese Lion Guarding the Jewel of Buddha, Chinese lions were meant to repel evil and as netsuke might have been meant to guard the wearer against evil influences. Statues of Chinese lions are common in temples and any sacred place. This one in the netsuke is shown fiercely guarding its charge, the Jewel of Buddha. There are three “jewels” of Buddhism representing core beliefs. The Lion itself is a symbol of the Buddha nature “which is present equally in each hair on the beast as in its entire being” per Bushnell’s.

Earthquake Fish — In 1855 much of Edo was destroyed by and earthquake. It was believed an enormous fish or eel lived beneath the Japanese islands, and caused earthquakes when it moved its tail. This netsuke would have been worn as a protective talisman against earthquakes.

Coiled Dragon, The dragon is important for any number of cosmological reasons. It is one of the twelve signs of the zodiac and the symbol of yang energy. In traditional representations, a Japanese dragon can be differentiated from a Chinese dragon because it only has three toes.

Images are from The Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Source:

Goodall, Hollis, et al. The Raymond and Frances Bushell Collection of Netsuke: A Legacy at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Art Media Resources Inc. and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2003. Print.

The illustrations from this 18^th century text are both beautiful and intensely disturbing. They come from a time when science was separating superstition from medical practice with the development of teratology, the study of deformities — but retained the unfortunate word “monster” as a medical term.

The prospectus of Les Ecarts de la nature ou recueil des principales monstruosités (The Deviations of Nature or a Collection of the Main Monstrosities) opens with the provocative quote from the French poet Boileau: “No monster exists that cannot be made pleasing through art." Artists Nicolas-François and Geneviève Regnault published their book of beautiful “monsters” as a blend of freak show and high art. And then this dubious catalog was reworked and republished, as a legitimate medical text.

There is a long and sometimes grotesque history of books cataloging “monsters”. From ancient times to the around the 17^th century, people with congenital defects and deformations were lumped in with fantastical beasts and considered less than human. Around the 18^th century, science began to counter superstition and the portrayal of “monsters” began to soften. Though the images from the original text are lovely and actually evoke sympathy, this book was primarily aimed at exploiting an interest in the strange and unusual.

Famous French anatomist and philosopher Jacques-Louis Moreau de la Sarthe republished the book in in 1808 as Description des principales monstruosités dans l’homme et dans les animaux précédée d’un discours sur la physiologie et la classification des monstres … avec figures coloriées par N.F. Regnault. This time, the book was aimed at a scientific audience. Moreau added 15 pages of introductory text and laid out scientific classifications and reasons for “monstrosities." He even went as far to counter the popular idea that a woman’s imagination during pregnancy shaped a baby and was responsible for any deformation. The beautiful monsters were turned into illustrations for a legitimate (for the time) scientific text.

Below is a selection of prints from the 1808 version of the text. The entire collection can be viewed at Gallica bibliothèque numérique. To read more about the history of teratology through portrayals in text, see the online exhibit Telling Wonders at the New York Academy of Medicine.

Most of us would probably like to be citizen scientists, but we're too busy — and yet we sink billions of hours into social gaming. So some savvy researchers are harnessing our love of gaming, to help advance the goals of science, using thousands of brains to sort through data. Here are eight games you can play... for science.

Top image: The Robot Graveyard on Forgotten Island, via Citizen Sort

The idea of using games to conduct research is not new. One of the oldest research-oriented games, Foldit, has been online since 2008 — and has generated real, tangible results in the field of protein folding that could have applications in creating treatments for AIDS, cancer and Alzheimer’s Disease. The success of Foldit has spurred the development of a handful of other research-driven games.

It's actually surprising how few games have been developed — in comparison to the reams of academic publications on the idea, and the encouraging results from existing projects. You have to wonder where the bottleneck in production is occurring. Are scientists and game developers not linking up? Is the funding not there? Is using games for research stigmatized? Maybe we are just now getting to the point of having mature, social gaming platforms and the associated buy-in by researchers and the public. One good sign is that more universities are adding programs and curricula that marry science and gaming. This — along with two new games slated for release this year, Brain Flight and GeneRun — bring hope that games for scientific research might be picking up traction.

But while we're waiting for the next wave of games that blend science, technology and culture, here are some games you can play now to help advance scientific research. The projects in this list contain some identifiable element of gameplay, and don't include other crowd-sourced projects like Planet Hunters — which might be interesting, but aren't necessarily games.

Foldit

Foldit is the granddaddy of crowd-sourced research games and has proven that games are a viable way to get results. Players were able to discover the structure of a monkey HIV virus, a problem that had stumped scientists for over ten years, in just ten days. The game itself is a 3D folding puzzle. Players are challenged to fold proteins into compact designs and are scored on various criteria like size and whether hydrophobic side chains are buried inside the structure. Players can work alone or with teams, to compete in puzzles and challenges.

EteRNA

In EteRNA, the goal is to coax RNA molecules into specified shapes. The player is presented a chain of circles representing nucleotides and has to swap their colors. Each color represents one of the four nucleobases that are the building blocks of RNA. Different bases create different bonds which dictate the shape of the RNA. To clear a level, the player has to recreate a given shape. Once the player has reached certain mastery they can play in the lab section of the game, where researchers challenge players mimic all new RNA shapes. These are shapes the researchers would like to learn to make in reality. The best designs are then synthesized in the lab and scored. EteRNA is a really slick game that is rewarding enough as a puzzle — but it's further enhanced with achievements and friendly competition.

EyeWire

EyeWire is attempting to map the brain, starting with the connections between retinal neurons. The actual gameplay is a cross between a hidden objects puzzle game and MS paint. An AI picks a neuron, and the player fills in the spots it could not identify. A 3D model of the player’s work is generated on the fly, as an additional tool for identifying neural paths.

Phylo

If you like gem-swapping games, Phylo is for you. The science is well masked by its cool abstracted interface and swinging music. A player might not identify Phylo as anything more than a casual game. In actuality, though, the different colored squares represent DNA nucleotides, and the game is using human pattern recognition to perform multiple sequence alignment. The data used in the game has already been run through computer algorithms, so the human players are actually optimizing the computer's results.

The Cure

The Cure is not a game to be taken lightly. It seems to require a great deal of time, research and effort. The user interface is also unintuitive. The game is working on developing a genomics-driven predictor of breast cancer prognosis. The mechanics are represented as a card game, in which the player tries to create the best hand. The hand is created by selecting cards that represent different genes. The hand is scored “by using the genes that you select to train machine learning algorithms to classify real biological samples. The better the genes reflect the phenotype, the better you will score in the game.”

Citizen Sort

The Citizen Sort website is a collection of three different games that are used to classify and characterize different animal species. The players are asked to determine various characteristics of animals in photos. Players don't need to know anything about each animal or what it is called, just use their powers of observation. This sorting allows researchers to identify and name the animals. These games are perfect for the budding naturalist. The interface and art style skew pretty young.

AI Game Research

This website is a showcase for different games that were developed for the study of AIs. Playing the games doesn't let you participate directly in research, but the games are either creating large data sets for research or generating recommendations that inform the next iteration of the game and the subsequently improved AI. A disturbing thought when it comes to the game NERO, which is about training networked robotic armies.

Brain Flight

This intriguing game isn’t out yet, but is set to launch in Spring 2013. Brain Flight is another game with the ambition of mapping the brain. Details about the actual gameplay are scant, but it does seem to involve soaring through a 3D model of a mouse brain. It is worth keeping an eye on.

Bonus

Artigo

This game isn’t about science per se, but it's worth mentioning as a research game. The project has several rapid-fire games, that center around tagging pieces of art and ultimately creating metadata for the objects. Potentially fun and interesting for the art lover.

Top Image Neurons Traced by Daniel Berger of Seung Lab

Want to get smarter during your commute? There are a lot of fantastic podcasts that will teach you new things in a thoroughly entertaining way. Here are 13 podcasts that will expand your brain with cutting-edge science and cutlural analysis.

1. Radiolab

Radiolab is a beautifully produced podcast that weaves together science and personal narratives into a thematic whole. Host Jad Abumrad’s background in music composition and production adds a lyrical and poetic feeling. Every month the main show centers on a theme like bliss or color and is composed of several segments with interviews. The interviews can be with experts or just people with an interesting story to tell. Shorter features about specific stories, like ant invasions or the founder of the Heimlich maneuver, are released to fill in the gaps between the main shows. The main shows are about an hour and shorts between 15-20 minutes

2. The Infinite Monkey Cage

This British chat show is hosted by physicist Brian Cox and comedian Robin Ince and consists of a panel of other scientists, comedians and celebrities. Each show has a loose topic of discussion like space exploration. The show is fast pace and very funny if you like British humor. The negative is the podcast only has a six week run twice a year, and shows are only 29 minutes each. New episodes won’t be out until June.

3. The Dork Forest

The Dork Forest is a safe place where all the Rangers of the Dork Forest can go as deep into whatever dorkdom they have. Comedian Jackie Kashian interviews people one on one about whatever obsesses them in life. The topics can range from beekeeping to comic books. Since Kashian is a comedian many of her guests are also standup comedians making for good banter and funny off topic asides. She also gets guests like comic book author Bill Willingham and novelist Lois Mcmaster Bujold. It is a grab bag of a show, where you always learn about something interesting. Podcasts are usually an hour long and come out once a week.

4. Stuff You Should Know

Hosts Chuck Bryant and Josh Clark chat about a topic and break down the complex science or sociology behind it into easy to understand concepts. The conversational tone of the podcast makes you feel more like you are sitting with friends instead of being lectures. There is a real sense of curiosity from the hosts as they talk about subjects from platypuses to zombies. The bite size podcasts are only about 25 minutes each but come out at least once a week, sometimes more.

5. Stuff to Blow Your Mind

The podcast explores the possible science behind fringe phenomenon like human lightning rods or the applications of cutting edge technology, like 3-D printers, and what is means for society, or sometimes the topic is just something cool that is interesting to know. Shows are around a half an hour and come out about twice a week. This podcast like Stuff You Should Know is put out by howstuffworks.com. http://www.howstuffworks.com/hsw-podcast.ht...”>How Stuff Workss puts out a few podcasts on a variety of topics and is worth checking out for some additional recommendations.

6. Story Collider

This is a really neat podcast where people tell stories about how science has touched their lives. The focus here is story telling. Participants and stories range from scientists falling in and out of love, bartenders studying quantum physics and people struggling with disease and grief. They are compelling tales that take a human look at science and technology. Podcasts are usually just shy of 15 minutes in length and come out once a week.

7. Star Talk Radio

Science hero Neil Degrasse Tyson has a podcast, and he rocks it with his late night DJ voice. Sometimes the podcast focuses on interviews with celebrities like Alan Rickman and Anthony Bourdain. Other times the podcasts are in studio sessions called Cosmic Queries where Tyson answers questions from the audience about astronomy and other more general space questions. A rotating cast of comedians co-host the in studio shows adding humor and fun banter. Episodes are about 45 minutes and come out roughly 3 times a month.

8. 99% Invisible

The very concept of this show is cool. It is exploring “the 99% invisible activity that shapes our world”. The focus is on how design and technology impact the world around us in ways we don’t even really notice. It is beautifully produced and edited, telling compact and complete stories. The website offers interesting supplementary material to the features. If you like Radiolab this is one to check out. Sadly this lovely show is only between 11-25 minutes in length and comes out every two weeks.

9. Geek's Guide to the Galaxy

This podcast hosted by John Joseph Adams and David Barr Kirtley will be of particular interest to fans of science fiction and fantasy literature. The first part of each podcast is an interview with a well-known or hot author in science fiction or fantasy. Recent guest have included Hugh Howey, Naolo Hopkins and Gregory Maguire. The interviews touch on some fascinating topics about the author’s works. The second part of the show is a discussion between the hosts and another guest, who is generally an expert on whatever the day’s topic is. Usually the discussion topic is thematically tied to the author interview and ranges from self-publishing to fencing. Episodes length from one to two hours about every two weeks.

10. Quirks and Quarks

This weekly radio show hosted by Bob McDonald is a great way to stay current on interesting science news across all disciplines. The show consists of several segments about different stories in the science news, and in each segment there is a brief conversation and Q&A with the scientist behind the findings. The show is very polished and the host is engaging and professional. The podcast has a lot jammed into an hour making it a good overview. The excellent website also allows listeners to pick out the segments they are interested in hearing instead of the entire show.

11. Science Friday

Host Ira Flatow and a panel of expert guests discuss science topics in the news. The two hour radio show is chopped into small segments and distributed via the RSS feed in hort little topical features that run around ten minutes long. There is a new program once a week that is presented in 7-9 segments for podcast listeners. This is a good option if you need flexibility and can’t commit to a long podcast.

12. The Tolkien Professor

If you love Tolkien this is the podcast for you. Presented by Dr. Corey Olsen a professor of English at Washington College, this podcast is solely about the in depth study of Tolkien’s works. How in depth? The show is currently on seminar 33 about the Simarllion. The show is really erratic in scheduling, putting out 2-8 episodes a month.

13. Professor Blastoff

This show isn’t exactly science, more science adjacent. Comedians Tig Notaro, Kyle Dunnigan and David Huntsberger have a weekly conversation with a guest about topics that interest them from science to philosophy to the metaphysical. Sometimes the guests are other comedians and sometimes actual scientists. The conversations are funny and often times thought provoking. If you are a new listener you’ll probably need to get past the intro and into the subject matter to warm up to the show. The shows come out once a week and run a little over an hour.

Top image from NASA.

In the new movie Trance, James McAvoy loses his memory and needs to be hypno-probed by Rosario Dawson. Amazingly, science fiction and fantasy have produced tons of way sillier amnesia storylines than that. Here are the 13 most insane memory-loss stories of all time.

When the aliens examine Earth culture, they are going to think humanity is a race prone to constant bouts of amnesia. One small crack to the head, and we forget everything — until we're hit on the head a second time, that is. Science fiction and fantasy abuse amnesia as much as any soap opera — except that they use magic and science instead of blunt force trauma.

1. Superman II

Superman is crazy powerful. He can fly, has super strength and can survive in space. Almost the only thing he can’t do is mind-control people. Except in the case of the movie Superman II, in which the plot requires he pull some power out of his ass to make Lois Lane conveniently forget that he is also Clark Kent. A power he dispenses with a kiss, for maximum canon-breaking cheese.

2. Grimm

Speaking of power laden kisses, when Renard woke Juliette up from her coma with a kiss, and she couldn’t remember her boyfriend Nick, there was an audible groan in TV land. Apart from the overall cheese factor, there was the fact that we still hadn't seen enough of the relationship between Nick and Juliette for her memory loss to matter. Whipping out an amnesia storyline so early in the show's run felt contrived and random.

3. Angel

At least the Angel episode “Spin the Bottle” did something interesting with its characters when they got amnesia. Angel and the gang are mentally reverted to their seventeen-year-old selves after a spell goes wrong. Hilarity ensues, because it is totally hysterical they all think they are teenagers and acting outside their normal parameters. And yet, the whole amnesia thing mirrors events in the Buffy episode “Tabula Rasa” a little too closely — so the whole thing felt like goofy fan service that rewarded longtime Buffyverse viewers.

4. Total Recall

While awesome in its over the top insanity of a three boobed prostitute and Arnold in drag, the plot of the original Total Recall doesn't really make sense under scrutiny. Unless you buy into the theory that Quaid never actually left the memory machine and the entire adventure was a dream, but the It Was All a Dream trope is way more B.S. than amnesia. The bad guys set up a ridiculously convoluted plan of memory-wiping Quaid and implanting false memories, and then totally fail to have any kind of control or any contingency plans in place.

5. Men in Black II

If you have the secret to saving the world, maybe you should maybe tell someone about it before you have all your memories wiped and go into retirement. (Not to mention the fact that being an MIB agent is inherently dangerous, and Agent K could have been easily killed in action and taken the secret of the Light of Zartha to the grave.) Also, why can some memories be restored but others not? If people can have their memories restored by a random alien with a cobbled-together deneuralizer, how is wiping memories even an effective strategy to begin with?

6. Push

Superpowers and magic are only convincing if the story adheres to the rules it established. Push fails to do this. The entire story is based upon a watcher, a genetically enhanced person that can see the future, setting into motion a series of events that occur even before the main characters are born. In the course of the story, several of the characters wipe their memories to throw evil watchers off their trail. What? They aren't mind readers. The original watcher could read the intentions of the kids that weren't even born. Anyway, the main character actually plans out his entire scheme and writes it down before wiping his memory. If the watcher actively tracking him was a mind reader, wouldn't she have gotten the plan before it was wiped? What the hell does inflicting amnesia actually do in the story besides add a veneer of cleverness?

7. Terra Nova

Maybe it’s not fair to kick a show that has already crashed and burned, but the internet makes sure no idiocy is ever forgotten. In the episode “What Remains,” several people catch amnesia. Seriously — they catch it as a disease, and lose the last 20 years of memories. And if they lose all their memories, they will die. Terra Nova’s illustrious leader, Taylor, goes off the deep end and thinks he is fighting in a war in Somalia. The dude has amnesia not impaired cognitive abilities. You’d think one look at the lush tropical environment — and oh yeah, the freaking dinosaurs — might convince him he isn't in Somalia. Apparently, he caught stupid along with amnesia.

8. Lost Girl

You can’t catch stupid if you already have it. In the episode “Fae-nted Love” Bo gets amnesia from some magic water being tossed on her. She runs away from her best friend, because she can’t remember who she is — but then immediately decides to marry a guy she can’t remember, who claims to be her boyfriend and tries to take advantage of her blank state. Um, that is a bit rapey. Sure, it turns out he's enthralled by her sexy succubus blood, but still — not cool.

9. Lois and Clark

In the episode “All Shook Up,” Superman loses a battle with an asteroid — and winds up forgetting he's Superman. Even suspending your disbelief long enough to think SUPERMAN crashed willy nilly into an asteroid and was knocked out, the rest of the episode makes little sense. His super strength is not something he can just turn off. Clark would be breaking walls and causing casual property damage all over the place. Instead, the amnesia is played for goofy moments, like Clark’s parents pushing him off a building to get him to to fly. His memory is eventually jogged by his deep feelings for Lois, and a cliché overdose.

10. Samurai Jack

When the stoic Jack has his memories wiped by siren enchantment, he transforms into Brent Worthington, a surfer dude with more than a passing resemblance to Ted “Theodore” Logan. Adding to the overall silliness of the two-part episode is the fact that the gifted insulter, The Scotsman, has to rescue him from a base and common existence. A funny episode and diversion for fans, but ridiculous from start to finish.

11. X-men Origins: Wolverine

Wolverine’s amnesia is induced at the end of the movie by an adamantium bullet to the head. Let’s just assume for a moment it could penetrate Wolverine's admantium fused skull. People actually get impaled or shot in the head, and survive with their memory intact. It would have had to hit a pretty special spot to cause memory damage. Maybe his brain was totally scrambled by bullet fragmentation, but why doesn’t he lose his language or motor capabilities? Perhaps it isn't surprising, since reading the comic history of Wolverine is a laundry list of amnesiac episodes. He is the poster boy for amnesia in the Marvel universe.

12. Doctor Who

The two-part episode "Human Nature"/"Family of Blood" is a fan favorite for good reason — it shows the Doctor finally becoming human and falling in love with an ordinary woman. And yet, the basic premise seems kind of bizarre — both the idea that the Doctor can take out his very essence of Time Lord and transform it into a watch, and the notion that the Doctor would put a whole school full of innocent kids in harm's way just so he could hide from some evil aliens whom he doesn't want to have to hurt.

13. Knights of the Old Republic

The Jedi council makes some seriously questionable decisions — like memory wiping their most powerful Sith adversary and setting him lose on the world again with no monitoring. Although to be fair, retraining said Sith lord in the ways of the Force might also be a bad decision in the long run. Even though the game is truly awesome, the setup is complete nonsense.

There aren't enough women scientists in the real world or in fiction, and movies and television often relegate lady scientists to arm candy and exposition dumps. But in some science fiction, you'll find female scientists who are brilliant, tenacious and get the job done by their own power. These are exactly the role models we'd love to have for young women trying to figure out what they want to be when they graduate: they're relatively principled, sane and not working toward overly selfish or nefarious goals. Here is a list of female scientists you wouldn't mind your kids — or yourself — growing up to be.

1. Susan Calvin, I, Robot As the main character of Asimov's ground breaking I, Robot short story collection - where the three laws of robotics first appeared, Dr. Calvin is a luminary in science fiction. As a pioneer and the preeminent practitioner of Robopsychology she was called in to solve problems no other engineer or scientist in the vast US Robots and Mechanical Men could. She is inspiring because she rose to great professional heights and fame despite the outright chauvinism she faced in the good ole boy 1950's inspired world she inhabited. Her general misanthropy and unsentimental outlook makes her strong and interesting character able to sharply reason and overcome not only challenging technical problems but also overcome a world unappreciative of intelligent women.

2. Samantha Carter, Stargat SG-1 Dr. Samantha Carter is not only a brilliant astrophysicist with a deep knowledge of quantum mechanics but a pilot with over 100 hours of experience in enemy airspace at the start of Stargate SG-1. Sam played a key role in getting the Stargate operational with her work on the dialing computer and stepped out of the lab to be a key member on missions through the gate. She was at times the head of the SG-1 team, the commander of the Atlantis Team and the commander of the spaceship George Hammond. Through the various series she rose from the rank of Captain to Colonel. She combines a brilliant scientific mind with strong leadership abilities and the ability to handle herself in combat.

3. Princess Bubblegum, Adventure Time Don't let all that pink and puffy sleeved dresses fool you, Princess Bubblegum has a hungry scientific mind that presses her into continual experimentation. Her experiments often seem to run into mad scientist territory with her obsessions with creating new life like Lemongrab, animating the dead or trying to create an immortal guardian like Goliad, but she never comes off as a mad scientist thanks to her poise and cultured appearance. She is a model of responsibility and duty as she cares for her kingdom and attempts to improve her subject's lives with science and service. She also tries to foster science (and show her own abilities) by sponsoring science fairs, shows and music concerts based on math.

4. Eleanor Arroway, Contact Ellie Arroway, the main character of Carl Sagan's Contact book and movie, is an astrophysicist and radio telescope engineer in charge of the Argus project that is searching for extraterrestrial life. She eschewed traditional science to pursue her passion for SETI. After making contact with aliens and deciphering blueprints for a mysterious machine sent by them, she used her sheer stubbornness and intense belief in science to convince the world governments to build the machine. She is a skeptic that questions the world and pushes hard for scientific answers. After the first American slated to use the machine was killed by sabotage Ellie stepped up to face the unknown danger of the machine and the more mundane terror of fanatics trying to stop the project.

5. Jadzia Dax, Deep Space 9 While in Starfleet Academy Jadzia earned Premier Distinctions in astrophysics, exoarchaeology, exobiology and zoology even before she became host to her ageless symbiote, Dax, and his accumulated learning. She served as a science officer aboard Deep Space 9 eventually receiving the rank of Lieutenant Commander. Truthfully it is hard to recall her actually doing any science despite her spiffy blue uniform. She is however an amazing character that any little girl would want to grow up and be. She could go toe to toe with Worf, command a ship and match wits with Quark while playing Tongo. She was a bon vivant but was always collected and controlled. Jadzia Dax was a strong woman by any standard and being gifted scientist is a cherry on top.

6. Liara T'soni, Mass Effect -Prior to the events of the Mass Effect video game series Dr. T'soni spent 50 years studying Prothean culture and technology, becoming one of the foremost experts in the field. She can help in a lab and handle herself in a firefight. In the comics she comes into her own as a strong and capable character able to balance her own agenda against hostile forces. She is fiercely loyal to friends, tracking down Shepard's body when everyone else had given him up and freeing Feron. Liara has a great story arc of growing from a bookish and sheltered girl into the powerful and self-realized Shadow Broker. Her research abilities and knowledge provide vital information that gives the galaxy a chance in the ultimate conflict of the franchise.

7. Helen Magnus, Sanctuary To begin with, Helen Magnus achieving her medical doctorate during the Victorian age as one of the first female surgeons and scientist makes her a commendable character. She then spends the next 150 years or so working on cutting edge science and practical medical techniques to help with her duties as the head of Sanctuary, duties which primarily focus on hunting and containing extraordinary and paranormal creatures. Through her unnatural longevity she has faced a great deal of loss and seen much of the evilness in humanity, but she still continues forward with grace and passion for her mission.

8. Sandy Cheeks, Spongebob Squarpants Sandra "Sandy" Cheeks is a great inspiration for the little girls and stoners watching Spongebob Squarepants. The upbeat and energetic squirrel originally came to Bikini Bottom to study seas creatures and their lifestyles. She is a gifted inventor that has made everything from a teleporter to cloning device. She is also one of the saner and more level headed characters on the show. Interestingly she seems to be one of the few television scientist characters actually doing experiments and creating inventions on a regular basis. Outside of science she loves extreme sports, karate and other vigorous activity that challenge stereotypes for little girls.

9. Kitty Ping Young, Dragonsdawn The only reason dragons exist on Pern is because of the work of Kitty Ping Young. She was the most eminent bio-geneticist of the Federated Sentient Planets, the only human who had ever been trained at the Great Beltrae Halls of the Eridanis. She used these Erdani techniques to alter plants and animals to thrive on Pern and ultimately engineered the dragon as a renewable air-force. She was also over a hundred, quite frail and only able to move about using prostheses. Old women characters, especially useful contributors, are pretty rare in almost all pop culture. She is an inspirational foil to all the hot lady scientist tropes.

10. Beverly Crusher, Star Trek: The Next Generation Being the chief medical officer on the Starship Enterprise is way more exciting than you might think. Dr. Crusher was often called upon to cure new and exciting plagues, figure out how to overcome telepathic woes, examine and understand newly discovered life forms and do not so routine things like find weaknesses in the Borg. It seems she spent as much time doing research in the med-bay as healing. While she didn't always occupy the flashiest place on the ship she was always a vital and solid presence that could step up and command from the bridge when needed. She was also a mother that had a healthy relationship with her child. Dr. Crusher is inspirational alone because she could balance a successful science career and family.

For more female scientists in sci-fi:
Women in Science: The Femael Scientist in Fiction database
LabLit