I know that PZ Myers has already covered it, but I think this article – or at least this topic – needs to be mentioned again: The most ludicrous depictions of evolution in science fiction history at io9.

The author elects to give only one example from comic books, which is kind of a shame because you could fill volumes with the crap that shows up. The monster/villain Doomsday is used as the example, and that makes me happy, because he started an argument about evolution with a college friend that lasted for most of a night.

But for my money, the worst “evolution in a comic book” moment is High Evolutionary and his “evolutionary ray,” which could cause a creature to evolve on the spot. This somehow created a bunch of anthropomorphic animals who wound up dressed in medieval armor.

I think that was the whole point, really. It created scenes that looked like Prince Valiant but everyone had animal heads; sort of a furry convention crossed with a ren-fair.

It seems silly, but I think that a lot of people get their understanding of science from pop culture. Stephen Jay Gould once told a story about a childhood argument with a friend over whether humans and dinosaurs coexisted. Eventually an adult was approached to settle the argument. The adult said that they did coexist, and based his answer on the old Alley Oop comic strip.

Anyway, what’s your least favorite misuse of science in pop culture?