Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 25, 2011 10:50:58 GMT -5
Based on the complete inaccuracy of lab science in shows like CSI, This drives me absolutely NUTS and is one of the reasons why I stopped watching CSI. There was a great scene in Superbad where the cops were saddened to learn that in the real world, everything wasn't covered with (um, let's say DNA). They thought there would be some giant (DNA) database that they could use to solve every case.
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Post by commentator on May 25, 2011 11:00:46 GMT -5
I watched Numbers and I watch NCIS, Bones, and House. Their science/math/etc. is as good as on any of the Star Trek series which I also watched. Nothing wrong with escapist fiction - as long as the viewer recognizes it for what it is.
BTW, some of that Star Trek technobabble has come to pass. For example, it is quite feasible, after warping up to a new planet, to almost immediately determine the composition of that planet's atmosphere. Note pad computers are another example. In fact, just about everything from those series, but automatic doors that know whether or not to open when someone gets near, is at least plausible if not possible or already in service.
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Post by commentator on May 25, 2011 11:07:38 GMT -5
"Personally, I prefer that bridges be built and medical research be done by people that actually had to learn the basics of their crafts as undergraduates. " I have a good gf from India and she told me about a bridge in Pune that has a big zig-zag in the middle because the engineers didn't do a good job of lining up each side on the plans. The standard joke is it happened because all the engineers that did well in school and were truly competent moved to the U.S. BTW, it was her joke and I did not mean it as any sort of slight to engineers that stay in India!!! Anyone remember the satelite that half was done in metric and half in standard American? Or how about Route 295 in NJ by route 42??? The north half and the southern half don't line up and missed by maybe half a mile. ![](http://us.social.s-msn.com/s/images/emoticons/what_smile.gif) Anybody remember transistors, antibiotics, open-heart surgery, vascular surgical procedures, Teflon, Kevlar, 4-function calculators, computers the size of 4-function calculators, GPS, GIS, weather satellites, etc., etc., etc.
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Post by commentator on May 26, 2011 7:42:39 GMT -5
And, let us not forget that benchmark of goodness, sliced bread.
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Post by pig on May 26, 2011 8:05:23 GMT -5
Their science/math/etc. is as good as on any of the Star Trek series which I also watched. Nothing wrong with escapist fiction - as long as the viewer recognizes it for what it is.
Problem is they don't. While touring the NYS forensic laboratory which is staffed by "scientists" but RUN by police officers they complained that the police would watch CSI and ask the lab "Can we do this?!?" That show is extremely FAKE.
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Colleenz
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Post by Colleenz on May 26, 2011 8:22:04 GMT -5
My supermarket has those automatic doors - they just don't make the cool Star Trek whooshing sound. ![:P](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/tongue.png)
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2011 19:50:48 GMT -5
My supermarket has those automatic doors - they just don't make the cool Star Trek whooshing sound. ![:P](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/tongue.png) Sometimes I make the whooshing sound for them.
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Phoenix84
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Post by Phoenix84 on May 26, 2011 20:41:26 GMT -5
"This drives me absolutely NUTS and is one of the reasons why I stopped watching CSI"
One thing that always bugged me is just the lab practices.
I forget which one, but there's one show where the chick is always eating and drinking in the lab, while wearing skimpy clothes.
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lurkyloo
Junior Associate
“Time means nothing now,” said Toad. “It is just the thing that happens between snacks.”
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Post by lurkyloo on May 27, 2011 0:27:48 GMT -5
NUMB3Rs started out with a Caltech professor as advisor and one of his students started as a hand double for David Krumholtz's character. So one would hope that at least in the earlier episodes the math was right...I didn't watch too many episode; I thought their explanations and special effects were incredibly campy. I like Bones, but occasionally Hodgins' lines about science make me whack my head against the wall. The bits and pieces of CSI I've seen tend to make me want to leave the room. Anyone remember the Sean Connery flick "Medicine Man" where they immediately identified the full structure of a novel compound by injecting it on a GC? ![::)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/eyesroll.png) Back to earlier comments: I have a BA and PhD in hard science, from top-15 and top-5 schools, respectively. I had very few professors that weren't native English speakers, and none that had problems expressing what they wanted to say...well, not language-related problems, anyway; the talent for teaching varied! Lab classes tended to be taught by instructors and experiments supervised by TA's; everything else in my majors were taught by professors. Most of my distribution requirements had discussion sections that were led by TA's, though.
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chemnerd99
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Post by chemnerd99 on May 27, 2011 1:42:17 GMT -5
Anyone remember the Sean Connery flick "Medicine Man" where they immediately identified the full structure of a novel compound by injecting it on a GC? ![::)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/eyesroll.png) The full chem draw structure and there was not even any He or gas attached. And it had a sugar backbone which is not volatile. Hate, hate, hate CSI. Have to explain that DNA takes multiple days and a really good gel technician. I always get smiley gels. All you see is the autosampler and poof out pops the structure. Blah. Continuing the trend, adjunct chem prof here at state college. Students today are dumb. I teach organic lab and damn I don't want some of them doctoring my children in a couple years. It is our duty to weed out those who can't handle it. Have them go to elementary ed or whatever just not professional schools. And I call bs on the funding/ pub issue. Even here 2 pubs a year and external money is required for tenure doesn't matter if you are a good teacher or not. You are paying for your slot, if not NEXT.....
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on May 27, 2011 7:01:25 GMT -5
Hate, hate, hate CSI. Have to explain that DNA takes multiple days and a really good gel technician. I always get smiley gels. All you see is the autosampler and poof out pops the structure. Blah.
The episode that drove me nuts was the one where Grissom determined that the strain of bacteria that the cat carried was the same strain from the wound of the dead person.....merely by looking at the culture on a petri plate.
Ummm, nope. Doesn't work that way!
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skubikky
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Post by skubikky on May 27, 2011 7:26:24 GMT -5
Yes, I agree. Good speaking and lecturing skills are certainly unimportant in the ratified air of the sciences where professors needn't hold themselves to even the minimal standards once required of ordinary elementary school teachers. Please note the following: Thermodynamics will be taught entirely in Mandarin by Professor Chow, followed by Professor Heimlich's lecture on Brownian Motion to be given entirely in Estonian. Take copious notes. Been reading through this thread and of course had to had my 2 cents. Born and raised in NYC(Queens). Went through public schools until 10th grade(got a scholarship to a prep school in Manhattan, had been waiting listed at Stuyvesant). Graduated, went to Stony Brook and majored in Electrical Engineering. The professors in the engineering department were a mix of native born Americans and naturalized Americans. I had a few foreign born professors who spoke with an accent. But, in my experience, I was able to understand the lectures, take notes and visit with the prof or a TA if I needed more help(which was often). In the late 70's there were many foreign born students at Stony Brook(Iranians, and many Asian graduate students). All of these people in my experience, were hard working and committed to making the most of the educational opportunity being afforded to them. Wish I could have said as much for many of my friends, classmates and myself. I learned to truly value the education that I was being given. The notion of weeding out in the entry level Physics, Chemistry and Calculus classes was accepted. The material by nature can be challenging to learn and master. I don't believe that professors made it intentionally difficult in hopes of culling as many students as they could. I think they were giving us a clear view of the amount of work, study and commitment that are required to earn a degree in the majors that these were the basis for. It serves no one if a truly difficult achievement is dumbed down or diluted so as to allow more to be able to partake. Better to see early on that one isn't suited to the subject or the amount of effort required and therefore reconsider and seek out something that will serve them better. I worked in the defense industry in the early years of my career. I was given much instruction, mentoring and practice at the tasks that I eventually would take on and be able to do independently. College taught me much science and practical skills(coding, critical thinking, problem solving). These then had to be applied in the work place. Each job that I've had over the years has required a ramp up period to learn(telephony, metrology, avionics, radar science).
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on May 27, 2011 7:52:10 GMT -5
Don't kid yourself though. In my college lab class, they did not even warn the students not to add water to a strong acid or base. They did not cover the correct way to angle a test-tube while holding it, etc.
Then you went to a crappy college. Basic lab safety is the first thing every professor went over when I was in college.
You can't always make everyone follow it, to this day I see women running around in skimpy open toed sandals here in the lab.
I had an argument with a student that despite the fact that we do not really use anything that would eat off his toe, that doesn't mean the other labs DON'T. Just because we are smart/safe doesn't mean other labs are.
It's like defensive driving, just because I am a good driver doesn't mean the rest of the people on the road are. Just because I observe lab rules doesn't mean everyone around me is.
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on May 27, 2011 8:01:39 GMT -5
Geez, in my kids high school they had to follow MANY safety procedures. If HS chem and lab teachers are following it, I would sure think college ones would.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on May 27, 2011 8:11:48 GMT -5
They get inspected just like any other lab and can recieve HUGE fines, it's in their best interest to follow safety rules.
Like anywhere else though you always have your violators, there is always someone who thinks they are the exception to the rule.
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Post by illinicheme on May 27, 2011 10:10:48 GMT -5
Continuing the trend, adjunct chem prof here at state college. Students today are dumb. I teach organic lab and damn I don't want some of them doctoring my children in a couple years. It is our duty to weed out those who can't handle it. Have them go to elementary ed or whatever just not professional schools. I sometimes wonder whether any of the pre-meds I had in organic lab about 8 years ago ever made it to medical school, and whether any of them are doctors now. There were only about two in a class of thirty who seemed to have more than eight brain cells communicating with each other. And this was at Berkeley.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on May 27, 2011 10:16:53 GMT -5
Yesterday I saw someone I went to college with, he's working as a resident in the hospital. Small world!
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on May 27, 2011 11:09:27 GMT -5
Here's one for you. The kid who got stuck in a garbage can so much that the custodian had to cut him out of it is now a general and rumor had it that he could push the nuke button!!!! Sure made for interesting reunion talk!!!! We all were wondering if he was going to nuke us for putting him in there (I think another boy did but it was eons ago) and laughing about it when he was stuck.
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