This is really related to anything in particular, but a few weeks ago in the Observer, Simon Singh (a really excellent science communicator BTW) wrote a piece about the maths jokes in The Simpsons (See The Simpsons Secret Maths).

Today on the BBC web site, he’s followed it up with another piece, this time about Futurama (see Futurama and Maths). This is quite a bit shorter than the Observer piece.

The brief biography of the mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920) is fascinating.  He achieved so much before his early death at 32. due to tuberculosis.

I’d recommend any Simpsons or Futurama fan look at these – it’ll give you some ammunition against those who claim cartoons are responsible for  “dumbing down” TV.