If there’s something to be said about streaming video instantly via Netflix, it’s that the ability to pick up and watch shows that long ago saw their final credit sequences is almost magical. There’s nothing quite like hitting a few buttons to have a show that went off the air years and years ago back in pristine condition. I suppose having the discs in whichever format that is currently preferred comes close.

But we’re a people that have grown accustomed to instant gratification and, well, this is instant streaming. Why go out and buy full seasons of older shows when you can just sit back and enjoy them without ever changing out of your pajamas? Why even put pajamas on?

Some of the best that Netflix happens to be streaming currently comes in the variety of science fiction television shows. Lots and lots of them. That said, there are obviously the classics. Just about anything with the word “star” in the name would automatically make any normal list of this kind.

So, ignoring anything with the word “star” in it, I present the science fiction shows you should be watching right now

Artist Ward Shelly made this marvelous, extremely detailed, entirely hand-drawn map of the history of sci-fi, from a dangly historical tail that includes the likes of Plato’s philosophy and the Beowulf legend to a modern-day head filled with classic sci-fi, cyberpunk, and space opera, with tentacles that diverge into different genres (sword & sorcery, modern horror) for good measure.

Click to see it full-sized. (Warning: It is very big.)

(via Chart Porn)

It was announced last summer that 1980s teen sensations Debbie Gibson and Tiffany would be appearing/battling each other in a SyFy movie called “Megapython vs. Gatoroid,” which is scheduled to air this Saturday. Just try and tell me what’s wrong with this sentence, because for me, a girl who sang “Electric Youth” into a hairbrush the year I got my first pair of glasses, this is proof that all is right with the world. Everything is going according to plan.

I Love Charts io9 targets bad science tropes in movies, including the instance of sound in space, slow motion in zero gravity, and inconsequential breeding between humans and aliens. Is the assumption that aliens are not so different than you and I really bad science? Or that physics moves the way the writer wants it to? It is science fiction, after all. And how scientifically accurate is “Star Wars” really supposed to be?

World Wildlife Fund Invents PDF That Can’t Print to Save Trees (Adverblog)

If Dr. Seuss Did Star Wars (Adam Watson)

Understanding Pac-Man Ghosts (GameInternals)

Most Impressive Long-Exposure Light Video You Will See Today (Flavorwire)

10 Classic Science Fiction Novels as Word Clouds (Brainwavez.org)

Denver: Saving Us From Cylons, One Tiny Robot Toy at a Time (Blastr)

Steampunk Superheroes (Chet Phillips)

(pic via Reddit.)

I write this post going into science fiction as a fan, but also unaware of how most scientists think about it.  I can imagine two central viewpoints: (1) scientists who enjoy it (like myself), simultaneously as entertainment and a bit of critical thinking and (2) scientists who dislike it due to its tendency to portray “evil scientists” and/or science and technology gone awry, destroying the world.

I didn’t really grow up reading science fiction.  Sure, I was (and am) completely obsessed with some fantasy novels (e.g. Lord of the Rings) but never made the leap to becoming a true sci-fi nerd.  It wasn’t until I started studying science more fully that I developed an interest in speculative science fiction.  Many of the stories do deal with technology taking over civilization – but embedded within this framework is a great deal of excitement, along with some deserved anxiety.

Earlier today, we reported on how unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed in demonstrations of prototype weaponized lasers. With the Distributed Flight Array developed by scientists at ETH Zurich’s Institute of Dynamic Systems and Control, shooting down UAVs may become a little more difficult to do now. This new technology allows for an autonomous drone (complete with its own motor, sensor, and flight control system) to locate other vehicles, dock with them, and subsequently create a cluster that can travel en masse.

Imagine the possibilities with these flying platforms: As the vehicles, when connected, can bear more weight than a single drone, a sizable array could hypothetically carry the heaviest of cargo.

Watch a video of these babies dancing together below:

As you may have noticed, this week marks the 30th anniversary of the theatrical release of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. Yes, it was thirty years go this weekend that everyone found out that Vader was really Luke’s father.

I’m sorry… too soon for spoilers?

Anyway, Scifi Wire has drummed up this tribute to the classic: The Periodic Table of Empire Strikes Back Elements. Full pic below.

It’s Earth Day, a holiday where we’ll all be thinking about what we can do for our little rocky ball three spots out from a medium sized yellow star.  Now, we don’t want to steal any of our dear old Earth’s thunder, but there are a number of other planets we think are deserving of recognition.

Certainly Mogo, the sentient planet Green Lantern, has done his share to keep peace in the galaxy.  Unicron, too, deserves recognition as a world devouring embodyment of chaos.  So we have complied a Power Grid list of the 10 Greatest Non-Earth Planets to grace the canon of Science Fiction.

Start reading this week’s Power Grid here.

Today, our American readers may be grumbling about tax day, but really, we may not have it so bad: Under some of the sci-fi governments we know, we’d regularly be terrorized by the mafia, shipped off to fight terrifying space bugs, and, uh, granted power solely based on how tall we were.

We’ve listed and ranked 10 of the worst science-fiction governments out there, considering not just infamy, but how well-represented the average grunt is. (Warning: there are spoilers in a few of our descriptions, so if you see the word “spoiler,” you may want to click ‘next’ and move on.) Who’s the worst?

See the list.