Seriously though, I can sorta kinda get on board with things like regeneration and electric pulses, where the body is doing something some biological life forms can do, but at accelerated rates. The only catch is, generating electricity or regenerating cells requires a LOT of energy, and these folks aren’t using their powers and then chowing down frantically. I have the same moments of broken suspended disbelief with the X-Men and randomly with Jedi. At least Lucas had his Jedi seem to struggle to do things that required energy, and they seemed to get tired using the Force.

Think of it this way, imagine that X-Wing Luke lifted out of the swamp weighed 50,000 lbs (similar to a F14). It would take a little over 222,000 Newtons to hold that thing up! To move it a mere 3 meters straight up at constant velocity would require 666,000 Joules! Excited yet? Well, here’s the sad part: 222,000 joules is the same amount of energy your body extracts from a 160 Calorie can of soda (That’s ~13 ounces worth of Coke-a-Cola). So, if it was possible to convert food energy into pure work without any losses to useless stuff, we could do amazing feats.

But, you are thinking, if it only takes Luke 160 calories to lift that X-Wing, why do I think he should feel starved from the exertion? Well, I don’t think it was a feat that could be done at constant velocity fighting only gravity. There was “friction” from the swamp sucking on the X-Wing and he certainly didn’t move it at constant velocity. I’m betting he easily blew 500 calories on that X-Wing. Give the guy a protein bar!

Part of my annoyance probably comes from reading Marion Zimmer Bradley‘s Darkover books at too young an age. Her characters (in some cases) can do telepathy, build things, heal things, etc, using crystals to amplify their bodies’ electrical fields. After doing stuff, they feel half-starved and power eat like a long distance runner. She got it.

I’m not asking for much. I just want hereos to get physically exhausted from using their powers, and maybe even to do a little carb loading or refer to it as a weightloss plan that doesn’t require exercise. Just talk about energy a little bit please. This one small scientific thing you can totally get right just with a Power Bar or two. (And, to lift a 175 lb male 1000 meters into the air at constant velocity would require 187 Calories if you assume no drag – and there is drag folks. And they weren’t going at constant velocity. These guys need to at least break a sweat).

Looking over the past summer’s series, we can see 13 episodes laid on in a steady march through the solar system, with occasional field trips to the outer cosmos. The episodes were: Secrets of the Sun; Mars: The Red Planet; The End of the Earth: Deep Space Threats To Our Planet; Jupiter: The Giant Planet; The Moon; Spaceship Earth; The Inner Planets: Mercury & Venus; Saturn: Lord of the Rings; Alien Galaxies; Life and Death of a Star; The Outer Planets; The Most Dangerous Place in the; and Search for ET.

Looking over these titles, shows can be grouped into 3 categories: Our Solar System (9 episodes), all other objects (2 episodes), and the search for ET (1 episode).

Clearly the name, “The Universe,” doesn’t quite capture the nature of this series. Perhaps “The Solar System and Beyond,” might have been less catchy, but more truthful.

But, as I’ve been saying all along, this is a hard game to play. People pay for planets. Stick a moon on a magazine cover, and watch the issues move out the door. Place a planet beneath a byline, and people will read your story. Their distribution of episodes met the demands of their audience.

In asking Astronomy Cast listeners what they wanted, we got lots and lots of requests for a journey through the solar system (and with next Monday’s episode, we’ll pass through the asteroid belt).

But cosmology is sexy, and sex sells too. High-energy astrophysics has a bling bling twinkle – what other stars shine as brightly as a hypernova letting off a blast of gamma rays? The Universe is vast, and dramatic, and I think there is room on the shelf for a second half, a “The Universe: Season 2″ the takes on the Cosmic Microwave Background and explores the maze of large-scale structure. There is room for specials on galaxy evolution and galactic cannibalism, and space to search for alien worlds orbiting stars nothing like the Sun.

But, to explain these things well and interestingly, and (perhaps most importantly) cheaply may not all be possible in a single show. We have real footage of all things solar system, and The Universe did an amazing job using footage from NASA and press releases to illustrate pretty much all their points. Existing images and movies of non-solar system concepts are much more scarce. Data visualizers like Robert Hurt of NASA IPAC do an amazing job translating complex theory into scientifically correct images and animations, but they don’t work for free and their time is limited. Contracting someone to create all the needed footage for 9 episodes exploring beyond the solar system would be a pricey endeavor.

But what if price weren’t an option? What should a series of shows on “The Universe” look at in a 13 episode season? This is very similar to asking, what should an introductory astronomy class cover in 13 weeks of classes? The standard answer goes something like this: 1. The sky and observables (seasons, lunar phases, planetary and stellar motions, etc), 2. a dash of physics, 3. light and color, 4. stars, 5. stellar evolution, 6. dead stars (white dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes), 7. planetary formation and planets, 8. The Milky Way and it’s environs, 9. Types of Galaxies, 10. The distance ladder and large scale structure, 11. The Big Bang (and evidence there of), 12. Dark Matter and Dark Energy, 13. The fate of the universe.

The first three can probably get ditched from a TV series, and episodes on supernovae, galaxy evolution and galactic cannibalism, as well as extrasolar planets can be snuck in.

This is my dream TV series on the Universe.

Maybe someday they’ll be a vodcast series in my future…

With an undergrad graphics guru to do the animations…

But for now, if you want to see a bunch of nice scientists (I know and like a remarkable number of the folks in the Universe) talking about what they love, the Universe will take you on a very thorough tour of the Solar System on DVD.

And tomorrow, I will pillage journal articles for interesting tidbits.

Tomorrow I’ll be talking about the Sun and all the new science you can use your History Channel provided background in our nearest star to understand.