Fittingly, Fox's 'Fringe' blurs boundaries of science

— -- A transparent-flesh disease, LSD-augmented dream walks and a cow-equipped mad scientist's lab are part of the weird-science landscape of the new Fox drama Fringe.

So how good is the science?

"I watched the first 10 minutes of the pilot and was so grossed out I just couldn't watch anymore," says immunologist Gigi Kwik Gronvall of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Center for Biosecurity.

Even accounting for drama, infectious-disease experts say, the science in Fringe (Fox, Tuesday, 9 ET/PT) goes way off the rails, starting with the opening show, in which a mysterious disease turns a planeful of passengers into flesh-dripping skeletons in moments. "I read the show synopsis, too — yuck," Gronvall says by e-mail.

Fringe, as in "fringe science," revolves around FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham (played by Australian actress Anna Torv); her mad-scientist helper, Dr. Walter Bishop (played by John Noble); and his Igor, er … moody son, Peter Bishop (played by Joshua Jackson), a genius/flim-flam artist. From a hidden batcave, er … Harvard lab, the crimefighters investigate gory incidents tied to the mysterious Massive Dynamic corporation.

"The point of the show is not to be a classroom film on the state of science and technology," says series co-creator J.J. Abrams, who is noted for TV's Lost and Alias. "It's science fantasy." The show's appeal is in the fun it has with science, the liberties it takes, he adds. "We're trying to entertain people with interesting characters placed into exciting situations, not bore them."

"Bottom line, it's way out there," says Michael Bell, the Associate Director for Infection Control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. "A lot of things in the show don't bear much relationship to science as we know it," such as:

•An LSD-trip treatment allows communication with an injured agent in a coma.

•Chemicals turn one victim's flesh transparent. "Really way out there," Bell says.