Posted on behalf of Ashley Yeager

Television might be about to get geekier.

The US National Academy of Sciences has created an initiative that will link TV and movie directors with scientists and engineers to incorporate more accurate science content into entertainment: the Science and Entertainment Exchange.

“By building strong connections between the entertainment and science communities, we’re hoping to provide an important service to both Hollywood and the viewing public,” says NAS president Ralph Cicerone (press release). Cicerone says he thinks initiative should allow the public to get involved in the latest advances in science, technology and medicine through television and film.

More and more shows are incorporating science into their content, especially forensic investigation and medical shows like CSI and ER. Films like A Beautiful Mind and Mission Impossible are also heavy on science and technology while Star Trek and the like use the fundamental principles of science to push the frontiers into science fiction.

The Exchange is the academy’s first formal effort to connect the creative minds of Hollywood with the creative minds of science.

“This is the most positive development for depictions of science in the movies in decades,” says May Berenbaum, an entomology professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (press release). She adds that she wouldn’t mind if the myth of mad scientists ultimately disappeared with the portrayal of scientific collaboration on TV.

Berenbaum is one of fifty scientists, writers and entertainment directors on The Exchange’s advisory committee. Other members include: Brian Greene, professor of mathematics and physics at Columbia University in New York, actor and producer Dustin Hoffman, Seth MacFarlane, creator of Family Guy and Julie Gerberding, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Image: this TV viewer cannot believe all the basic physics errors in hit movie Armageddon / Getty