Andy is joined by Sam Gregson—who works on a “very big thing in Geneva”—to discuss public perceptions of scientists, as revealed through fiction and the media.

CP violations; sinusoidal need & perception; hypocritical stand-up sets; aliens; Stargate SG-1; destroying the magic; Spock; Brians with Ph.D.s; and more.

James Grime, “resident tamed mathematician” of The Enigma Project and past guest, returns to the show to discuss the cliché of depicting scientists as tormented by their own vast intellects.

Can 2 + 2 = 5?; Good Will Hunting; George Dantzig; Walter Pitt; William Sidris; Srinivasa Ramanujan; 21; card counting; savants; Fermat's last theorem; Gauss.

Some links from the end of the show:

We're joined by Helen Scales—marine biologist, broadcaster and author of Poseidon’s Steed—to discuss watery lairs, submariners, cephalopods and more, with a nautical soundtrack.

Nick Crumpton—zoologist, co-editor of BlueSci Films, freelance journalist, occasional beard-haver and ukulelist—joins the show to talk primarily about long-dead mammals.

Your intrepid hosts have spent their summers in two unfamiliar cities apiece. To kick off the new season, we'll be discussing fiction which deals with the unique characters of different cities and societies. Expect plenty of free marketing for China Miéville. (Also, Andy has been working on a new survival technique in case of the breakdown of society…)

Leonard Richardson joins the show from across the Atlantic to talk about games as plot devices, generative content, storytelling, games which exploit the player, and dadaism. You may know Leonard as the creator of Robot Finds Kitten, the maintainer of Beautiful Soup and the author of Constellation Games, among his many other works.

Andy and Will discuss the ways people converse in fiction: some archaic, some fantastical.

Daisy Scholten joins Andy to talk about saintly medical techniques, the afterlife, and absolutely no Dan Brown.

Don't forget to get your ticket to see Prometheus on Monday 4th, preceded by an in-the-flesh edition of The Science of Fiction about the science of Alien! (Why not join the Facebook event?)

How might the world end? This week, The Science of Fiction investigates the myriad of scenarios for the downfall of humanity. Plus, we introduce a revolutionary new unit of apocalyptic severity…

With Andy having fled the country, Will is joined by Trevor Wood to talk about Nash equilibria, reputation-based currency, and the 16th-century tulip bubble. (They will try to avoid discussing Diplomacy too much.)

You may remember Trevor from his Season 2 appearance on mathematics and mathematicians.