Hello there! Against all rumours, this blog is not dead (yet). I was away on holiday for a couple of weeks, one of which I spent in Iceland. On the flight back I watched the Futurama episode “Reincarnation“. Where would you least expect to see something about microscopy and science? If you guessed “on a small screen in the back of an airplane seat somewhere between Iceland and the UK in a futuristic cartoon series animated in 8-bit pixel style”, you win a prize.
This episode is split in three parts, all of which have been drawn in different styles. In the first part, Fry makes a diamond planet explode (long story). The Professor then uses a piece of that diamond in the second part as sophisticated novel microscope lens to discover the universe’s smallest particle. Spoiler alert: it’s a black pixel.
“The Professor forms a scientific equation explaining the mysteries of the universe from this single unit, only to become depressed upon realizing that there are no further scientific questions to answer. Fry cheers him up by saying that he has yet to solve why the laws of the universe are what they are and not something else, thus giving scientists a reason to keep looking for answers about the universe.”(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reincarnation_(Futurama)).
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to find a longer clip of the scene, so you will have to get hold of the DVD and watch it yourself!
