Discussion on:

Chemist adviser to 'Breaking Bad' talks about scientific accuracy on TV

Couldn't afford a science advisor? They sure can now, given the show's growing popularity! This is probably one of the best shows on TV. Thanks to Ms. Nelson for making it accurate!

Now if they can only do this with shows that have computers in them...NO! The cursor on the screen doesn't make noise...no "click-click" or "doot-doot" noises...nothing!
And if you're on dial-up, it will take more than a minute to download anything useful! And there is no way a Macintosh computer can connect to an alien space-craft and send it a virus!

...is how by "computer enhancing" a low-res video from a security
camera, they can see a license plate of a passing car via the
refection in someone's sunglasses 200 feet away...

To #3: Yeah, I was watching this movie with my kids, and the scientific explanations were horrid. Then they showed the INSIDE of a house and zeroed in on a caller-id phone number on a handset. They claimed it was done by triangulating satellite images. I fell off the couch laughing. Fortunately, the movie was salvaged because the main character ALSO called BS at that point, and finally got the "real" explanation. Of course that involved some crazy sci-fi, but at least it didn't violate common sense, so I was OK with that.

@ JohnMcGrew -- Yeah, 200 feet is quite a stretch, but from 25~50
feet away is doable -- even on home gear...

An understanding of simple mathematics with a bit of trigonometry
thrown in should be more than enough to cause someone to reject
the notion that something such as a license plate could be retrieved
from an image consisting of barely a quarter-million pixels. (DVD
resolution, which would be much higher than that which would be
found on "home gear") Most standard-def gear I've dealt with is
lucky to read a plate on a moving vehicle 50-feet away looking
straight at it.

Hey, Tech_ed:

maybe a Mac couldn't, but don't expect any other human-made
computer to do so either. Most people don't know the difference
between big-endian PPC Macs and little-endian Wintel Macs or
windows PC's either, bit using one of them to end an alien craft a
virus wouldn't make sense either.

Science advisors traditionally have been put on staff, given their input and been ignored.

Kinda like book authors whose books are being produced for tv/video...

ERROR ERROR ERROR>
Walt was a high school ORGANIC chemistry instructor? I don't think so. Come on. On a story about accuracy in science it would be nice to have it be accurate in fact.

YES, high schools teach organic chemistry. There were 2 chemistry teachers at my high school, and one taught organic chem every semester. Your experience is not necessarily indicative of the entire world, no matter how mock-offended you are.

Kudos to Donna Nelson for being willing to step up and help out for free rather than see bad science go on the air. You're doing a good service not just for the working scientists who groan when they see something wrong on the show but also for all the students who will be able to pick up bits and pieces that they can use in science class.

I enjoy the realism as much as it is possible.
But the real life drama sells the show.
The realism keeps it interesting with good script writers & actors.