Is the sceince REAL?

I remember watching Carl Sagan’s ‘Cosmos: A personal Voyage’ when I was young and being very inspired by it. The enormity of the galaxy outside our planet gave birth to a sense of awe and curiosity for the unknown.

In those days there were no popular science shows except Star trek (which is watchable even today).

But today in the 21st century, there are quite a few shows on TV based on Science or Scientific procedures. But are these for mere entertainment or the science depicted in them for real?

NBC shows like Law and Order and CBS shows like CSI (Crime scene Investigation) depict a team of forensic scientists investigating murders or crimes using biotech techniques like Mass Spectrometry, Gas Chromatography, PCR (Polymerase chain reaction) and DNA sequencing.

Whereas in the real world a graduate student takes 2-3 hours to setup, start a reaction and run an agarose gel to analyze the PCR products (amplified quantity of polymerized DNA), in the CSI show it takes only five to ten minutes. Same is with other procedures like gas chromatography. The most amazing instrument is the DNA sequencing machine. It takes only a matter of seconds for the DNA sample to be run and out comes a crisp colorful printout.

No it dosent happen that fast in the real world. But when a show has only an hour to solve a crime, I guess the protocols need to be as swift as possible.

However,the scientific thoughts and procedures in the shows are very rational. Combined with the fact that the scientists are extremely good looking, the shows do have very good viewer ratings.

One other show that is a funny sitcom is The Big Bang Theory. The show depicts a group of physicists and their interactions with each other and the non physicists around them. Although the physics part is doubtful(http://nymag.com/guides/fallpreview/2007/television/36554/),

to their credits, the writers and actors of the show make everything seem very real.

Although I wish the science behind these shows would be more practical and close to reality, the fact that these shows are gaining popularity with the masses, indicates a ’science friendliness’ that i cant help but feel glad about.