Muppets Named Top Scientists 213
praedictus writes "Apparently Bunsen and Beaker of Muppet fame have been nominated favorite TV scientist in a poll conducted by the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). and the BBC, soundly beating other contenders such as Mr. Spock, and Agent Scully."
What about (Score:5, Interesting)
Oh, and it was an unscientific internet poll.
Re:What about (Score:5, Informative)
--
Cool kids click here [dealsites.net]
Re:What about (Score:4, Interesting)
Funny story - back in my 9th grade Science class the teacher was giving a demonstration. It was the typical "Place lighted match in glass, place hard boiled egg on top, match goes out and egg gets sucked in" one to show air expansion/contraction. Anyway, before he did the demo he asked us all what would happen - I was the only one to get it right.
He said "How did you know?" and I told him I saw Mr. Wizard do it.
Well well that wasn't something he wanted to hear! He went on a 15 minute rant about how Mr. Wizard went all over the country talking to science teachers and stealing their best experiments then putting them on TV and making big money off of THEIR ideas... It was pretty damn funny at the time, and still is.
Re:What about (Score:5, Insightful)
Sample Farnsworth Quotes (Score:5, Funny)
"I still don't understand why you wouldn't let me craft a laser cannon onto your chest, to crush those who disobey you..."
"Sure, everyone's always in favor of saving Hitler's brain, but put it in the body of a great white shark... oooooh, suddenly you've gone too far!"
Re:Sample Farnsworth Quotes (Score:5, Funny)
Farnsworth: "No fair! You changed the outcome by measuring it!"
Farnsworth: "I'm even dating a young Brazilian retired actress!"
Crew: *whoohoo sounds*
Farnsworth: "Some say I'm robbing the cradle, but I say she's robbing the grave!"
Farnsworth: "Fry, that monkey is my most important experiment. If you two don't stop fighting I'll have you both neutered."
Fry: "Hehe, that'll show him."
Farnsworth: "Oh, I always feared he might run off like this. Why, why, why didn't I break his legs??"
Leela: "So he just ran away in the middle of the exam?"
Farnsworth: "I'm afraid so. All he handed in was a paper smeared with feces. He tied with Fry."
(stolen from gotfuturama.com)
Re:What about (Score:4, Funny)
Re:What about (Score:2)
Lester was NOT a giant rat! He was a Guy in a Rat Suit! They even said so on the show! How could you have missed that but somehow figured out that Josie was a drug addict!?
Sheesh!
Lester probably wasn't... (Score:2)
Bill Nye is a poser - Beakman DVD out tomorrow!! (Score:2)
Note that in the link above, you'll find that by amazing coinceidence a Beakman [amazon.com] DVD is due out tomorrow! For those of you not privledged enough to see science done with a guy in a giant rat suit for a sidekick, you owe it to yourself to spend the $10 and get a copy.
I'll still place Dr. Bunsen Honeydew in the lead though - but followed by Beakman.
Re:What about (Score:2, Insightful)
Plus, he was on that Thomas Dolby song, that's got to count for something, right?
Re:What about (Score:2)
Quatermass (Score:5, Informative)
Why wasn't Quatermass [bbc.co.uk] on the short list? It's astounding to think that early TV SF horror shows were broadcast live.
Re:Quatermass (Score:3, Insightful)
-Tom
It follows (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:It follows (Score:2)
Re:It follows (Score:2)
Beaker has not spoken at Oxford, but I did see Kermit the Frog speaking at the Oxford Union.
Re:It follows (Score:2)
favorite beaker bit (Score:2)
"...and through the magic of the Enlarge-o-matic, Beaker can more easily study this common household germ."
"WRAAAAR!" "MEEEEEEEP!"
"...and vise-versa!"
Re:It follows (Score:2)
Beaker Miffed (Score:5, Funny)
"Meep mee, me meep meep meemeemee meep!"
Dag, yo. You got served! You better apologize.
Re:Beaker Miffed (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Two Things (Score:2)
Re:Two Things (Score:5, Funny)
In a forum of virgin nerds, you have to give the nod to Scully.
Re:Two Things (Score:3, Funny)
-aiabx
Re:Two Things (Score:3, Funny)
The first one was highlighted, and went on and on about how he was going to use ropes, wind them around the stone and unwind it. They went into pretty good detail, interviewing the professor and students.
The view switched to the other team, all starin
Re:Two Things (Score:5, Insightful)
Why not include more traditional scientists on the list, such as Bill Nye, Mr. Wizard, or popular untraditional ones like Peter Venkmin or the Answer Guys?
Re:Two Things (Score:3, Funny)
Now you got me wishing for the ultimate 80's sci-fi team up: Venkman, doc Brown and Buckarro Banzai fighting pan-dimensional time-travelling ghosts!
: )
Addendum to the Ultimate 80's Sci-Fi Team Up (Score:3, Funny)
I got the names confused. Venkman was just the front man, with no real scientific passion. Egon is the man. He designed all the gear, he develloped all the theories, he made the speech about the twinky.
Venkman is Egon's Marty McFly, he's lovable, but replacable
Re:Two Things (Score:2)
It's been a while since I saw the trilogy, but what 'madness' did he perform that outweighed his scientific tendenancies?
*Genuinely curious*
With thanks to IMDB (Score:3, Informative)
Dr. Emmett Brown : What on Earth's this thing I'm wearing?
Marty McFly : Ah, this, this is a radiation suit.
Dr. Emmett Brown : Radiation suit? Of course, because of all the fallout from the atomic wars.
Dr. Emmett Brown : If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits eighty-eight miles per hour... you're gonna see some serious shit.
Marty McFly : Wait a minute, Doc, are you trying to tel
Missing options... (Score:5, Interesting)
What about Samantha Carter from Stargate?
Re:Missing options... (Score:3, Insightful)
What about Beakman, from "Beakman's World"?
Man, I loved that show.
Re:Missing options... (Score:3, Funny)
What about MacGyver? He didn't stay all day on a lab or something like that, but he surely knew a lot about physics and chemistry.
And what about the Professor, from PowerPuff Girls? Oh, I mean, I never saw it... I mean... Damn!
Re:Missing options... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Missing options... (Score:2)
Russ %-)
Re:Missing options... (Score:2)
He knew a lot more about physics and chemistry than nature itself. It was a pity for us household cleaning agent nerds and Swiss army knife geeks that some component of his inventions was kept secret every time. Of course it was never hard to guess that this secret component had to be something like household-nitroglycerine, magical toad saliva with a high C4 percentage or natu
Re:Missing options... (Score:3, Funny)
Its fave scientist, not hottest scientist.
Beaker n a bikini though...that's notion.
Bunsen's Friends Supportive (Score:5, Funny)
"He-a's a greet mun, a guud freeend. Thees echeeefement feenelly recugneezes zee cuntreebooshuns he-a hes mede-a tu zee sceeence-a und zee betterment ooff hoomuneety. I shell beke-a a ceke-a in hees hunur! Bork Bork Bork!"
Re:Bunsen's Friends Supportive (Score:3, Interesting)
Scully? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Scully? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Scully? (Score:3, Interesting)
I mean, come on.
"She didn't accept anything she couldn't directly observe or quantify."
most of the time she didn't accept things she did observe, and refused to attempt to quantify almost everything.
Re:Scully? (Score:2)
We at the Vet Pathobiology Lab were always amazed at the speed with which she was able to perform electrophoresis. Anyone who can do a complete isolation and analysis in 45 minutes is a phenomenal scientist, in my book at least.
Re:Scully? (Score:2, Informative)
Yeah, but. But. She's hot.
Re:Scully? (Score:2)
Only on Slashdot will this be modded with +1 Informative. I mean, it is informative, but still.
And she is, though.
Re:Scully? (Score:4, Interesting)
Medicine, as a degree, is not science. A standard medical degree is procedural. This is one reason medicine is moving toward a post-graduate degree, some of which require a "medical science" degree before hand.
Physics, however, is the only real science.
Disclaimer: Yes, I am a physicist.
Re:Scully? (Score:2)
Re:Scully? (Score:2)
Bloody astronomers.
Re:Scully? (Score:2, Insightful)
So what? A degree in physics doesn't mean your a scientist. A friend of mine has a law degree. He doesn't practice law - he started a consulting company. Is he a lawyer? I don't think so. Another friend has a physics degree, then went into medicine and now works as a MD. Are they a scientist?
You are confusing a person's education with occupation.
Scully was a FBI agent. That was her primary identity/purpose.
Re:Scully? (Score:2)
Inept? Inept? Dear sir you shall have to take those words back! Purely on their achievement of turning Gold into Cottage Cheese shall they be known for their scientific prowess!
Re:Scully? (Score:2)
Re:Scully? (Score:2)
-russ
Good News Everyone! (Score:4, Funny)
Where's Frink? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Where's Frink? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Where's Frink? (Score:2)
Missing Poll Option... (Score:5, Funny)
Marge : There's a man here who says he can help you.
Homer : Is it Batman?
Marge : He's a scientist.
Homer : Batman's a scientist.
Marge : It's not Batman!
Re:Missing Poll Option... (Score:2)
Marge : He's a scientist.
Homer : Batman's a scientist.
Actually, Marge says "No, its a scientist".
Then Homer points out that just because its a scientist doesn't mean its not Batman...
beaker's comments (Score:4, Funny)
Mee mee meeeee me meeeeee mee meee meeeee. Meeee me meeee mee meeeee me.
What about the Professor???? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What about the Professor???? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What about the Professor???? (Score:4, Insightful)
Well sure, she'd have been stuck with Gilligan, that abusive fat guy and the old married koot.
The professor, however, was "stuck" on a tropical island with Marianne AND Ginger, and their other options are listed above.
We would have done the same
Re:What about the Professor???? (Score:2)
(Galaxy Quest references are a cheap way to help a karma slump!)
Re:What about the Professor???? (Score:2)
I mean for gosh sakes, I never saw Scully make a battery out of a coconut!!
BTW, didn't MacGyver make a plane out of those when he was marooned on a desert island?
zWhere's the Holo-Doctor? (Score:2)
Smeg the holo-doc (Score:3, Insightful)
I liked him better when he wore the big green H on his forehead.
Re:Smeg the holo-doc (Score:2)
Not sure if you are referring to this or not, but I do remember Grant/Naylor commenting that the holo-doc appeared not long after Red Dwarf made it over here to the states.
Personally, I kind of have mixed feelings as to whether anything was copied or just naturally evolved. I mean, what happened on RD was arguably quite original. However, Voyager had years of Trek to build from, including characters (moriarty?) that were holographi
Re:Smeg the holo-doc (Score:2)
Lets see, one is a hologram, immaterial and confined to the ship, treated rudely by the rest of the crew, who after a few years gets a hard-light projector (technology from the future that was inconceivable when the ship was built) that hovers ins
Racist title (Score:5, Funny)
I can't believe slashdot would run a story with that title. "Bunsen, Beaker Named Top Scientists" would have been much more dignified. You would never see "Whites Named Top Scientists" or "Hispanic, Woman Named Top Scientists" would you? Please, Bunsen & Beaker are scientists first, muppets second.
Re:Racist title (Score:3, Funny)
Reminds me of a scene from Veterinarian's Surgery, featuring Ralph as Doctor Bob and Miss Piggy as, err, Nurse Piggy.
Doctor Bob: Nurse Piggy, you cannot let your feelings interfere with your duty. You are a nurse.
Nurse Piggy: I may be a nurse, but I'm a woman first!
Doctor Bob: Wrong. You're a pig first. Nurse second. I don't think woman made the top ten...
Cheers,
Ian
The converse poll... (Score:5, Funny)
Hmm, think I'll vote for Pons and Fleischmann.....
Re:The converse poll... (Score:2)
IEEE's Spectrum this month has a really interesting article on cold fusion, which talks about why the results are so hard to replicate, and the number of researchers who have managed to do so nonetheless. There is some debate about whether the effect being observed is actually fusion or not (although there are numerous indicaters that it might be), but the whole thing is rather
outraged (Score:3, Funny)
Re:outraged (Score:2)
Beaker in Las Vegas (Score:4, Funny)
Truly one of the funniest things you will ever see.
Only third? (Score:2)
Re:Only third? (Score:2)
Buck up, I'm sure he'd win if it were a contest of time travelling scientists...
Bah, who am I kidding, doc Brown, hands down
Re:Only third? (Score:2)
Frink and Farnsworth (Score:3, Insightful)
Inspiration for young scientists (Score:5, Insightful)
"Scotty" on Star Trek has just got his star on the sidewalk (covered by slashdot). Many student engineers at one US school said they were inspired to take engineering by Scotty. (I can't find the link.)
Re:Inspiration for young scientists (Score:4, Interesting)
And [bbc.co.uk] he was given an honorary degree in engineering by the Milkwaukee School of Engineering where apparently half of the students polled said they were inspired to study engineering by his role in Star Trek.
Wile E. Coyote (Score:5, Funny)
wbs.
Where the Future is Being Made Today! (Score:4, Interesting)
It's been a long time since I've seen the Muppet Show, but I too was very much a fan of Muppet Labs, where the Future is Being Made Today, with Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and his faithful assistant Beaker. Doctor Honeydew looked remarkably like a science teacher I had in high school. Liked to sprinkle nitrogen triiodide around the school at Hallowe'en. Bang!
Curiously, when I think of fictional (television or otherwise) women scientists, the two that come to mind (Professor Sam Ryan and Dr. Kay Scarpetta) are both forensic pathologists. Hmmm...
...laura
How about the CSI guys? (Score:5, Interesting)
I heard enrollment in forensics college courses is way up on account of that program.
I know why Dr.Strangelove lost... (Score:5, Funny)
I asked the clerk if he could provide me with the movie "Dr.Strangelove".
Immediately, the man points to the back of the store : the x-rated section...
I guess most people seeing the vote were disgusted when they saw this name in the contest
Mr. Lizard! (Score:5, Funny)
nominated? you mean won? (Score:3, Insightful)
Sounds like they won, instead of just being nominated.
Re:nominated? you mean won? (Score:2, Informative)
How on earth did this get modded insightful? Mods who use the Oscars as their only authoritative source for the meaning of words?
Nominate:
To name, or designate by name, for an office or place; to appoint
What about Beakman? (Score:3, Insightful)
Beakmans World DVD out tomorrow!! (Score:3, Informative)
Show support for a show that never should have been taken off the air, and throw a copy of any Bill Nye stuff you happen to see on teh ground in a gesture of disgust.
if only... (Score:2, Funny)
Bunch of bloody Muppets (Score:3, Funny)
Professor Heinz Wolff? (Score:2)
Sir Patrick Moore?
Professor Lord Robert Winston?
Professor Sir David Bellamy?
Sir David Attenborough?
None of them anywhere in the top ten. Sigh...
What ever happened to Bunsen (Score:3, Funny)
Re:The reason (Score:2)
Re:What about scully (Score:3, Funny)
"Beating the muppet" to booby shots aye? It THAT what they're calling it now? OK then...
Re:Good thing our kids want to be rocket scientist (Score:2, Insightful)
Besides, wouldn't you rather the kids watch Bunsen and Beaker than Pokemon?
Re:X-Files (Score:2, Funny)
And then they fucked the corpse.