MacGyver

Searching for a light TV series to watch this summer (contrary to the mind-blowing Twin Peaks I did last year), I decided to re-watch my childhood hero MacGyver. MacGyver was supposed to be a US secret agent in the late '80s with a scientific/engineering background that somehow manages to tackle all challenges by just always carrying a duct tape and a swiss army knife.

Me and my sisters were huge fans of the series! Later they became lawyers while I became a physicist, not sure what went wrong in the meantime. Anyway, our dad had actually got a classic pocket swiss army knife for each of his daughters - kudos for choosing a quite diverse gift for girls. I remember finding it quite handy in cases like fixing my Walkman, doing paper crafts, May Day flower crowns and definitely a must tool when camping with my friends. Later I moved to London to realise that carrying a swiss army knife is illegal and could be considered as a potential terrorist act. The end of Innocence.

Watching MacGyver again as an adult in 2018, I can identify all clasic geopolitical stereotypes. I also find it slightly exaggerated or sometimes scientifically inaccurate. For example in video above, what a coincidence to have a fiber optic lamp next to a photo detection motion sensor but mostly, the trick would never work unless MacGyver could somehow attach the fiber simultaneously on both sides.

Nonetheless, what still amuses me with MacGyver's adventures is the moral lesson that one can defeat "evil" and protect the underrepresented with DIY engineering and scientific knowledge instead of violent approaches and methods. "The pen is mightier than the sword" or in this case "The laser is mightier than the sword"* (literally true if we are talking about class 4 lasers).

The Optical Society of America, OSA

*Hat tip to Dr Graeme R. Spurr, University of the Arts London