The Science of Fiction – Details, episodes & analysis

To celebrate the release of Star Trek Into Darkness, serial guest James Grime has taken on the arduous task of re-watching the original series to study the mathematics featured on the screen. He joins us for a podcast-only special to tell us all about it, with audio clips of the relevant episodes. We'll talk about cicadas, morphogenesis (or “waves on cows”), deceiving androids from first principles, and the biggest question of them all: does the redshirt always die?

If you want to check James’ working, he's published a series of posts over at The Aperiodical on the same themes: part I, part II, part III.

Please enjoy this photograph of Gödel, which we mention towards the end of the show. Please also enjoy further information on the remarkable Valais goat. The short skirt uniform worn by both men and women in early episodes of The Next Generation is called a skant, and it was occasionally worn with trousers.

JIM: Science and medics, those are the blue shirts.
HOST: Where do mathematicians go? Scientists?
JIM: That’s right, yes, science.
HOST: You’re safe?
JIM: Yes, I am, I’m in the blue shirt category.
as quoted by Peter Rowlett in What colour shirt do mathematicians wear?

• Theme from Star Trek
• Nerf Herder – Mr. Spock
• Beach House – Zebra
• Leonard Nimoy – The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins
• William Shatner – Real

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Oliver Marsh studies science-media interactions at the department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, occasionally performs at Bright Club, and blogs about “the human side of science”. He joins Andy in the studio for the final episode of season 6!

• KT Tunstall – Funnyman
• David Bowie – Life on Mars
• Ethel Merman – There's No Business Like Show Business
• The Smiths – That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore
• Mother Mother – Infinitesimal

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Andy is joined by Sam Gregson—who works on a “very big thing in Geneva”—to discuss public perceptions of scientists, as revealed through fiction and the media.

CP violations; sinusoidal need & perception; hypocritical stand-up sets; aliens; Stargate SG-1; destroying the magic; Spock; Brians with Ph.D.s; and more.

• Santa Dash 2012

• Red Hot Chili Peppers – Love Rollercoaster
• Right Said Fred – I'm Too Sexy
• Carly Simon – You're So Vain
• The Flying Lizards – Money (That's What I Want)
• Pilot – Magic
• D:Ream – Things Can Only Get Better

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James Grime, “resident tamed mathematician” of The Enigma Project and past guest, returns to the show to discuss the cliché of depicting scientists as tormented by their own vast intellects.

Can 2 + 2 = 5?; Good Will Hunting; George Dantzig; Walter Pitt; William Sidris; Srinivasa Ramanujan; 21; card counting; savants; Fermat's last theorem; Gauss.

Some links from the end of the show:

• the first episode of Sci Cam.
• The Science of Fiction podcast, though if you're reading this you may already have noticed.

• Radiohead – 2 + 2 = 5
• MGMT – Time to Pretend
• The Notwist – This Room

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We're joined by Helen Scales—marine biologist, broadcaster and author of Poseidon’s Steed—to discuss watery lairs, submariners, cephalopods and more, with a nautical soundtrack.

• Eyeball washed up on Florida beach 'probably from large swordfish'
• A World Without Coral Reefs
• The Rime of the Modern Mariner
• Moby Dick Big Read
• Mind Game
• The Life Acquatic
• Leafy seadragon

• Lisa Hannigan – Ocean and a Rock
• Villagers – The Waves
• Kings of Convenience – Cayman Islands
• Sigur Rós – Starálfur
• The Beatles – Octopus’s Garden

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Nick Crumpton—zoologist, co-editor of BlueSci Films, freelance journalist, occasional beard-haver and ukulelist—joins the show to talk primarily about long-dead mammals.

• Half-life of DNA
• 100-Million-Year-Old Spider Attack Found in Amber
• High morphological variation of vestibular system accompanies slow and infrequent locomotion in three-toed sloths
• Ice Age's Scrat Discovered
• Bathtime for Baby Sloths
• The Mammoth Trilogy
• Innerspace
• I Shrink, Therefore I Am
• The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists

• John Williams – Theme from Jurassic Park
• David Byrne & St. Vincent – Ice Age
• PVT – In The Blood
• Here We Go Magic – Collector

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Your intrepid hosts have spent their summers in two unfamiliar cities apiece. To kick off the new season, we'll be discussing fiction which deals with the unique characters of different cities and societies. Expect plenty of free marketing for China Miéville. (Also, Andy has been working on a new survival technique in case of the breakdown of society…)

• Neverwhere
• London Underground mosquito
• Divergent American Sign Language
• (Just like of Montreal are not from Montréal, Architecture in Helsinki are not from Helsinki, as this Venn diagram about Scandinavia illustrates.)
• Maple syrup heist
• Andy recommends Tactical Nuclear Penguin
• A review of Penrose’s Cycles of Time.
• Angry Minnesotans Take 3D Printer Away From Gunmaker
• Tesla museum campaign
• Garuda (Will and two past Science of Fiction guest presenters’ band) on Facebook and SoundCloud

• The Clash – London Calling
• Kaki King – Montreal
• They Might Be Giants – Electric Car
• Buke and Gase – Naked Cities

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Leonard Richardson joins the show from across the Atlantic to talk about games as plot devices, generative content, storytelling, games which exploit the player, and dadaism. You may know Leonard as the creator of Robot Finds Kitten, the maintainer of Beautiful Soup and the author of Constellation Games, among his many other works.

• Candlemark & Gleam.
• The Constellation Games Semi-Official Home Page (A production of The Great Hall Of The People And Also Science).
• Holly's blog post with statistics garnered from her research.
• The incredible spreadsheet.
• Wikipedia on Lucky Wander Boy.
• The generative artworks of Adam Parrish.
• Spurious, for all your sonnet needs. Since the recording of this episode, Leonard fixed the bug mentioned, so the sonnets are true Queneau Assemblies.
• Dada Da Dada Da Dum, Leonard's all-new limerick Queneau assembler inspired by Andy's remark.
• Not mentioned on the show, but Dinosaur Comics fans should take a look at Dadasaurus Rex.
• Jonathan Whiting on Nethack on Games We Have Known And Loved.
• @MarkovGuybrush.
• Speaking of Twitter, @leonardr.
• We noticed after the recording that Amazon UK lists Constellation Games without any punitive shipping costs.

• Psapp – About Fun
• Adam Parrish’s Frotzophone
• Darren Korb – Twisted Streets (from the Bastion soundtrack)
• Alex Smoke – Anima

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Andy and Will discuss the ways people converse in fiction: some archaic, some fantastical.

• Causality-violating quantum entanglement
• How the world's travel guides describe America

• El Ten Eleven – Thinking Loudly
• The Notwist – Pick Up The Phone
• Lali Puna – Call 1-800-FEAR
• 65daysofstatic – Radio Protector

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Daisy Scholten joins Andy to talk about saintly medical techniques, the afterlife, and absolutely no Dan Brown.

Don't forget to get your ticket to see Prometheus on Monday 4th, preceded by an in-the-flesh edition of The Science of Fiction about the science of Alien! (Why not join the Facebook event?)

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