Biologist's Gripe

So I posted this in response to what my awesome friend wrote here:

http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/blog/how_scifi_scientist

And I am preserving it here, because I am a narcissistic nerd.

Me:

I agree completely!

But, why do You think it is that biologists always seem to get such a bad wrap in science fiction?

The advancements that physicists make in sci fi always inspire "wonder and excitement." Yet, advancements in biology, with a few exceptions for "practical medicine," seem confined forever to the horror and dystopian genres. We are unhesitant to explore new territory, manipulate our environments, and create new tools. Yet when we direct that same sense of adventure inward, instead of out, somehow we cross a line and become the stuff of monsters...But why should we not try to guide our evolution?

Kennelly:

I don't know. I wrote this when I was drunk.

But The Fantastic Voyage isn't like that, that's biologists doing good and going on adventures and stuff. It's mostly horror, not sci fi that badly characterises biologists. I've got more comments, but I've forgotten them.

Me:

I don't know. Sci fi seems to put biologists in a "dubious at best" category, unless they're doctors or ecologists, just maintaining and preserving the status quo, but physicists get to be saints of the stars for throwing together interstellar space travel. "Good biologists" in fiction just don't CHANGE anything. It seems unfair. Or maybe it's just because the humans in those sort of tales (with badass forward thinking biologists) would be too foreign for us to relate to.