Last week, chemist Ronald Breslow made a splash the size of the Yucatan crater with the greatest non-sequitur in the history of academic papers: he decided that the concept of chirality (that is, a molecule’s dominant orientation) probably means that there are Star Destroyers manned by T-Rexes floating around in our galaxy.

Well, friends, here we go again. Breslow is yet another legitimate scientist who is clearly trying to nose his way into the highly exclusive field of mad science. Listen, I didn’t go through 1.21 years at the fictional Emmett Brown College just to have some highly trained, intellectually rigorous and eminently qualified thinker like Breslow swoop [...]

What if I said the Death Star’s most deadly feature—yes, the one that rebel leader Admiral Ackbar said was "not yet operational"—was first envisioned by our planet’s very own scientist and inventor Archimedes over 2,200 years ago? You’d probably be all, “it’s a trap!"

Don’t worry, it’s not a trap, and your cruisers can definitely repel firepower of that magnitude. In fact, if you’re a fan of "Mythbusters" and/or President Obama, you may already have seen an episode, aired last December 8th, 2010, in which Obama very professorially challenges hosts Jamie and Adam to determine whether Archimedes’ death ray could have actually functioned. Obama refers to the weapon [...]

Nerds: they talk about nerd things. Here, nerds Becky Ferreira and Miles Klee discuss the return/reboot of Futurama, now airing its sixth season on Comedy Central.

Miles Klee: Becky! I was half-watching Fellini's Satyricon last evening, and there's this mini-rant from a Roman poet about how Nero's empire doesn't produce art or theory, or anything to stimulate the national synapses. Where have all the philosophers gone? Pretty sure they're writing for Futurama, our animated authority on matters of bioethics, transhumanism and quantum fates. And as luck would have it, my DVR was recording the Futurama reboot at that very moment.