Syfy should really spin-off the Nikola Tesla character, or else hire him on as part of Sanctuary's core team. Someone obviously has a great deal of fun writing his dialogue, and Jonathon Young delivers it with such douchebag relish. Tesla wants to revive the long-extinct vampire race, and to that end, has posed as the head of a private addiction clinic so he can infuse his patients with a latent vampire gene. Apparently rich meth heads are perfect candidates for the undead master race.

The plan was to start killing off these latent vamps in a couple of decades when they were older and wiser, so they could become true vampires. But ex-drug users aren't exactly the most cautious characters, and they start dying all on their lonesome being reborn as vampires. The kids catch wise to what's going on, and are soon killing and reviving their fellow former addicts. As a bonus, they kidnap Tesla in hopes of making him their vampire mentor.

Tesla finds them insufferable, and the Sanctuary team has to find the failsafe they know Tesla must have hidden somewhere (in a rather clever callback to Tesla's vino habit, it's stowed in Magnus' wine cellar) so he can de-vampify the undead trust funders. Sadly, it de-vamps Tesla, too, making him mortal and, in his estimation, decidedly less cool. But hey, he's still brilliant, still obnoxious, and now he can actually get drunk off of all that wine.

Seriously, forget Sanctuary Season Three. Give me thirteen episodes of Nikola Tesla on a quest to turn himself back into a vampire and try to take over the world.

Less than an hour outside the glittering cesspool of Las Vegas, sits the future site of the Nevada Lightning Laboratory. The 80-acres are barren, but the plans for the land are impressive. The NLL project plans to erect a set of twin 12-story tall Tesla coils, capable of creating an arc over 300 feet long. The twin coils will be used to test aircraft vulnerability to electrical storms, as well as provide some pretty dazzling entertainment to the public. Elevators will take on-lookers to the tops of the towers where there will be viewing platforms, safely encased in the Faraday cages atop the Twins. There will even be a bar and lounge area. From your plush seat, dry martini in hand, you will be able to watch a simulated lightning storm with the same specs as the real thing.

In addition to tickling aircraft with bolts of light, the research facility will provide a space for scientists interested in, among other things:

* Re-creating relativistic breakdown avalanches and other large-scale anomalous events
* Pulsed calibrations of the ionosphere, allowing accurate global weather data measurement
* Research and development towards developing advanced lightning control techniques

Viewers of a less scientific bent won't be disappointed, either. Aside from a well-mixed drink on the viewing deck, the NLL hopes to provide a experience worthy of, well, Vegas. These cirque du circuitry shows may include:

* Flying a helicopter through the live electrical discharges
* Full-scale lightning strikes on vehicles, buildings, trees
* Throwing lightning arcs hundreds of feet, with a human hand
* A full scale re-enactment of Benjamin Franklin's kite experiment

While the NLL site is still empty, the team of mad scientists behind the project have been hard at working making this coil dream a reality. To do simulations, they've built 1:12 scale twin coils, to demo what sort of sizzling spectacle will eventually take place just ten miles from the electrical powerhouse of the Hoover Dam. The NLL crew have given demonstrations for the past several years at Maker Faire, Dorkbot SF, and the Northern California Teslathon. For crowds, they sometimes fly remote helicopters into The Twin's arc, to give a small taste of what is eventually to come. Recently, one of Leyh's prototype Tesla coils came out to play in June at Dorkbot:

DorkbotSF at the Nevada Lightning Lab from Mike Estee on Vimeo.

The Twins:

Greg Leyh and the NLL crew are no strangers to the magic of Nikola Tesla. Leyh, an odd amalgam of Tesla and Benjamin Franklin, lives for lightning. He founded Lightning On Demand, a group of engineers and artists dedicated to creating and studying electrical phenomena. For example, at this year's Maker Faire, a go-cart carrying a human rider was powered, entirely through the air, by the 1:12-scale twin coils in a demonstration of Tesla's century-old patent on remote power, one of the largest such demonstrations ever successfully implemented. Most prominent among their existing projects, however, is perhaps the giant Electrum, a nearly 40-foot wand sculpture that houses the largest Tesla coil of its kind ever built, capable of discharging 130,000 watts. The Electrum is a collaborative project between Leyh and artist Eric Orr, and is part of an installation in Auckland, New Zealand.

The tower, funded richly by JP Morgan and other turn-of-the-century industrialists, was originally conceived for radio communications, which were just on the cusp of being invented. It was fitted out with a massive antenna, and rumors swirled that Tesla had also created a vast catacombs of tunnels beneath it for some purpose nobody understood. As the inventor of alternating current electricity, along with hundreds of other devices, Tesla was so respected that his funders were willing to put up with his eccentricities if they paid off.

Unfortunately, they didn't. After erecting the massive tower and building a huge laboratory next door, Tesla was beaten to the punch by some guy named Guglielmo Marconi. You know, the inventor of radio. Tesla tried to woo back his irritated funders by promising something bigger and better than radio: Wireless electricity. Unfortunately nobody went for it and he was left destitute. Tesla sparked the tower up only one time in 1903, shooting enormous bolts of electricity into the air. Then he sold it off along with its environs, called Wardenclyffe, to pay his debts.

Eventually parts of the tower were demolished and used for scrap, but a hulking chunk of it remains, along with the lab and possible tunnels beneath. Some of Tesla's massive, bizarre equipment is still in the buildings, and the purpose of some unimaginably huge batteries there remains a mystery.

Unfortunately, as the New York Times reports this week, the Wardenclyffe property is up for sale by its current owner Agfa. The company spent millions cleaning up toxins on the site, and with the economic downturn can no longer afford to keep it. They promise potential buyers that they'll deliver the property "cleared," meaning they'll destroy what's left of Tesla's research facility. There will be no chance for anyone to study its remains, to see if the man really had invented wireless electricity a century ago.

This would be a tremendous loss for science history. Luckily several groups are lobbying to turn the area into a museum for Tesla. You can find out about their efforts in the NYT article here. Let's hope the push for a museum succeeds.

Long-Range Wireless Energy Transfer: Tesla explored the wireless transmission of energy through his work with radio and microwaves and his creation of the Tesla coil and the magnifying transmitter. But he sought to create a system where energy could be broadcast across vast distances. To that end, he constructed Wardenclyffe Tower in Shoreham, Long Island, which was to function as a wireless telecommunications facility and broadcast electrical power. But JP Morgan, who financed the construction of the tower, eventually pulled Tesla's funding. Unable to find additional backers, Tesla was forced to abandon construction of the tower, and never fulfilled his dreams of creating a worldwide wireless electrical energy system.

The Witches of Chiswick by Robert Rankin: In an alternate timeline, Tesla teams up with mathematician Charles Babbage and create a highly advanced version of the 19th Century. Tesla’s perfection of wireless energy transfer combined with Babbage’s computer programming enable the pair to create autonomous robots, airships, and space-bound rocketships.

The Prestige by Christopher Priest: Tesla invents a device resembling the magnifying transmitter, but it succeeds in transmitting not just energy, but matter. The problem is that, while the machine transports matter to another location, it leaves the original matter behind, creating duplicates of objects, animals, and even human beings, with their memories intact.

Humanoid Robots: In 1898, Tesla demonstrated his radio-controlled boat, which he was able to control remotely. He presented it as the first of a future race of robots, which would be able to perform labor safely and effectively, and many credit the event as being the birth of robotics.

Five Fists of Science by Matt Fraction: Real-life friends Nikola Tesla and Mark Twain team up against Thomas Edison, JP Morgan , Guglielmo Marconi, and Andrew Carnegie to bring about world peace. Tesla’s plan is to develop a series of super-powered robots operated through a virtual reality system and then gifting each country with such an automaton, ensuring that each nation has equivalent firing power.

Atomic Robo by Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener: Nikola Tesla creates Atomic Robo, a wisecracking robot, war hero, and paranormal investigator. Together with the Action Scientists of Tesladyne, Robo battles supernatural forces and Nazi scientist Baron Heinrich Von Helsingard.

Death Ray: In the 1930s, Tesla claimed to have invented a particle beam weapon, or, as some called it, a “peace ray.” The device was, in theory, capable of generating an intense, targeted beam of energy and sending it across great distances to demolish warplanes, foreign armies, or anything else you'd rather didn't exist. Tesla shopped the plans around to various national militaries, but never found anyone to finance its construction. It isn't known if Tesla ever developed a working prototype, and the plans for his death ray were never found after his death.

JLA: Age of Wonder: After laboring for Thomas Edison, Tesla strikes up a partnership with the Superman Clark Kent to develop inventions for the betterment of mankind. But during World War I, he joins forces with former Edison bookkeeper Lex Luthor to create a death ray to battle the Germans.

Area 51 by Robert Doherty: Various theories have swirled around the Tunguska Event, a powerful and mysterious explosion that knocked down a swath of trees in Siberia in 1908. Some have suspected Tesla’s experiments were responsible for the blast; others blame a UFO crash. Doherty’s series explains that it was a little of both: Tesla deployed his death ray to knock down an alien spacecraft.

Callahan’s Key by Spider Robinson: Robinson also holds Tesla accountable for the Tunguska event, but says he deliberately knocked down the Siberian trees as a test firing. The trouble starts when government forces get their hands on the technology and use it to threaten the Earth. Fortunately, by then Tesla has become an immortal time traveler and is still around to stop them.

The Tesla Legacy by Robert G. Barrett: Tesla may not have built his death ray, but he may have created an entirely different, though still powerful, weapon. The United States Government has long kept secret Tesla’s most dangerous invention: a doomsday device that could disrupt all communication systems on Earth. And it has been sitting for decades in the Australian desert.

Improved Airships: Tesla envisioned applying his theories on wireless energy transfer to improve transportation. He claimed that electrically-powered airships would transport passengers from New York to London in three hours, traveling eight miles above the ground. He also imagined that airships might draw their power from the very atmosphere, never needing to stop for refueling. Unmanned airships might even be used to transport passengers to a preselected destination or for a remote aerial strike.

Barnum!: As an evil Tesla threatens the United States, he evades the forces of American spy PT Barnum in his marvelous airship, where he sometimes hides Charles Babbage’s stolen thinking machine. He’s also got an armory of technological achievements at his ingenious fingertips, including a gyrocopter and a wearable device that lets him electrocute victims with a handshake.

The Venture Bros.: Rusty Venture’s ancestor, Colonel Lloyd Venture, protects a mysterious Orb with Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, and Aleister Crowley, all members of a Guild, aboard an airship. But Tesla and the Avon Ladies launch an aerial assault against the Guild. Incidentally, the Sovereign of the later Guild of Calamitous Intent is David Bowie, the same man who portrayed Tesla in the film adaptation of The Prestige.

Wonder of the Worlds by Sesh Heri: Tesla creates an airship that not only sails through the skies, but also travels into space. In fact, Tesla’s inventions are so impressive that Martian agents steal from him a powerful crystal engine, compelling Tesla to travel to the Red Planet with Mark Twain and Harry Houdini.

Super Electrotherapy: Engineer Georges Lakhovsky believed that people could achieve good health by adjusting the oscillation of their cells. He tapped Tesla to assist him in building the Multiple Wave Oscillator. Lakhovsky claimed the machine would improve health, remove pathogens, and even cure cancer, but many regard it as medical quackery.

Sanctuary: In infusion of vampire blood triggers Tesla’s latent vampiric genes, transforming him into an amoral bloodsucker. It also makes him long-lived enough to perfect his inventions. He even finds a way to recreate the vampire race using his own blood and a portable electrical device. Incidentally, the same device results in deep brain stimulation, and can heal psychosis-inducing brain damage.

Generation Tesla: This version of Tesla also manages to escape death, in this case by transferring his consciousness to another plane of existence. His superhuman creations have also similarly come back from the dead, transformed as he resurrects them to battle evil.

The Film: Joel O. Shapiro's 2005 film The Visionary
The Scientist: The 17 minute film explores the more Fellini-esque side of scientists Nikola Tesla, starting with him no-showing his acceptance of the Edison Prize in 1917.
What's Missing? The Visionary makes no attempt to be comprehensive, but a few more references to Tesla's extraordinary biography for those wanting to know more couldn't have hurt. The film focuses primarily on Tesla's tower, necessarily omitting for time much of his entertaining early life.
Verdict: If you're curious, sample the gorgeous cinematography of the film here. The Prestige will have to do for now.

The Film: The animated short Paprika, not to be confused with the 2006 feature length Japanese anime of the same name.
The Scientist: Albert Szent-Györgyi, who extracted Vitamin C from paprika in the early part of the twentieth century. He also saved Jews during World War II, so despite the cute animation, there's a big time story here.
What's Missing? To watch Paprika you'd think Szent-Györgyi was a paprika farmer in Hungary who happened to make a discovery. In reality he was a Cambridge grad with a long history of important science. But that's not the point in this child-oriented cartoon.
Verdict: Paprika is a fun YouTube, if a bit light on science. You can watch it in its entirety here.

The Film: Jim Berry and Fritz Michel's hospital short Semmelweis
The Scientist: Ignaz Semmelweis was a doctor whose genius idea that doctors should wash their hands is roundly frowned upon by a generation of obsessive-compulsives. A law school dropout, he found he could make an impact in early medicine.
What's Missing? Set in a Vienna hospital (right), the filmmakers even made a trip to get a few evocative exteriors. Still, Semmelweis's epilogue reveals that Semmelweis was beaten to death by guards in a lunatic asylum, a scene you never omit from a screenplay.
Verdict: Some of the production values scream "We shot this in Yonkers," but hey, they did shoot it in Yonkers. A fun and entertaining, if amateurish, look at nineteenth century science.

The Film: experimental documentary Great Stupidity and Profound Genius from director Benita Raphan, who last worked on a highly regarded Buckminster Fuller documentary.
The Scientists: The film profiles Helen Keller, Paul Erdos (right), and other great geniuses in a unique free flow of sound and image.
What's Missing? With echoes of Hollis Frampton's Zorn's Lemma, the film doesn't really make a convincing argument for how "stupidity" relates to genius, but it gets points for challenging Jesus' IQ and its compelling abstract visuals. The highlight is undoubtedly a ten year prodigy's explanation of how he solves complicated equations.
Verdict: It doesn't get less marketable than a short documentary, but Benita Raphan's fascinating tribute airs on The Sundance Channel from time to time. She's a promising young talent in the field, and you have to eagerly anticipate her next project.

• He worked for Thomas Edison and was promised a huge bonus if he redesigned his electric motors and generators. He did so, and gave Edison several patents as an employee, but Edison never paid out. Tesla quit and developed the more efficient "alternating current" that opposed Edison's "direct current" and eventually became the standard electrical current that we still use today.
• He was one of the first people to work with x-rays, and he invented an "X-Ray Gun" that you could use to fire x-ray beams at someone with, and it would develop on unexposed film hung behind the subject. A favorite target of this gun? Mark Twain.
• He thought that memories and thoughts were recorded on the brain and could be watched, like a movie, through the retina.
• He thought he could control the weather, and attempted to develop this technology. Eventually he was able to produce spectacular artificial lightning bolts.
• He developed the first radar system.
• He built his own wireless radio transmission tower in New York in conjunction with a German company named Telefunken, but the government tore it down in 1917 for fears that the Germans would use it to spy on the U.S.
• He transmitted radio waves before Marconi, but was never seen as the "father of radio," even though the Supreme Court decided to uphold his radio patent over Marconi in 1943. He died before the case was heard.
• He tried to develop anti-gravity airships, teleportation, and time travel after becoming fascinated with idea of light as both a wave and a particle. He put a lot of theoretical work into Tesla's Flying Machine, which would have been an ion-propelled airplane.
• There is a crater on the moon named after him.
• He believed that women would become the dominant sex in the future, and that they would rule over mankind like "Queen Bees."
• He was developing a way to harness energy from space, and said that one day all of man's inventions would run on this energy.
• He had plans to illuminate the world's oceans and build a massive ring around the Earth that would allow people to travel around the world in a single day.
• He developed something late in life called Nikola Tesla's Death Ray, and had a press conference to publicize it, stating it could "send concentrated beams of particles through the free air, of such tremendous energy that they will bring down a fleet of 10,000 enemy airplanes at a distance of 200 miles from a defending nation's border and will cause armies to drop dead in their tracks." It later became the basis for the Strategic Defense Initiative or "Star Wars" satellite defense system that is still being developed today.
• He died alone and in massive debt in his New York hotel room in 1943 at the age of 86. Upon his death, the FBI declared all of his papers and research to be "top secret" and seized them. Eventually, some were returned to his family. Some have never been found. Cue conspiracy theories.
• Visitors frequently request his room at The New Yorker Hotel, room 3327. Supposedly they hope for a "spark" of inspiration.
• He was portrayed by David Bowie in the film The Prestige, although he sadly never invented the machine shown in the film, which we won't spoil for you here. Although you can check out a clip here featuring Bowie as Tesla, which we hope will inspire you to rent this excellent "science meets magic" film.