There was a time when science was synonymous with a cold high school lab; where the droning voice of a teacher would momentarily break to let a droning science video take over. Watching a film in science class wasn't like watching one in other classes - you never felt like you were getting a break from learning.

But, long ago, filmmakers began experimenting with the idea of keeping the audience awake by creating entertaining and interesting programming. Now science programs are more than just not boring; they're popular.

With the success of films such as March of the Penguins, Who Killed the Electric Car and An Inconvenient Truth, broadcasters are waking up to the fact that audiences want to know more about the world around them - how it works, what's happening to it and, specifically, how they fit into it. So what's changed?

Catherine Alvaresse, senior VP of sales and coproductions for EuropeImages in Paris, says doing a pure science program just doesn't work anymore. "In science it's best to avoid too many interviews, explanations, scientists, laboratories, stuff like that," she says. "Today you need something more spectacular, either in how it looks visually or with what it says."

Story lines, rather than technical descriptions of science, are key. Manuel Catteau, producer and general manager at Paris' Zed, agrees. "Science content should be spread along a good story line, so that the audience learns something without feeling like they are being taught," he says.

This notion that science films should have life in them is born out by the success of programs like Oxford Scientific Films' Meerkat Manor, Handel Production's How William Shatner Changed the World and Granada's Brainiac: Science Abuse.

Brainiac is an experiment-based, hosted science program where the presenters cook up bizarre demonstrations - many involving explosions - in the name of entertainment and exploration. While it can come off a little like Jackass in its over-the-top manner of presentation, it succeeds in making true science exciting.

As does How William Shatner Changed the World, though in a less explosive way. This two-hour one-off for Discovery Canada explains how Star Trek influenced many scientific and technological advancements. Using the comical yet cocky Shatner to tell the story, and clips from the show to illustrate the technology envisioned by its writers, the doc illustrates that advances in space travel, medical machinery, astrological discovery and the invention of cell phones and personal computers may not have happened if it wasn't for the imagination of Gene Roddenberry.

Meerkat Manor is a nature show that behaves more like a soap opera. "With Meerkat Manor, obviously it's about entertaining, but we're always very true to the science," says Caroline Hawkins, executive producer with Oxford Scientific Films.

Expectedly, some have begun to suggest entertainment trumps content. The biggest complaint about today's version of science seems to be that it sometimes only takes up 20 minutes in a one-hour program.