{"id":6120,"date":"2010-08-02T03:00:47","date_gmt":"2010-08-02T08:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/?p=6120"},"modified":"2010-08-02T03:00:47","modified_gmt":"2010-08-02T08:00:47","slug":"bovine-milliners-in-the-lab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/archives\/6120","title":{"rendered":"Bovine Milliners in the Lab"},"content":{"rendered":"

Experimental Error: Don’t Try This at Home<\/a><\/p>\n

I recently watched the online trailer for a stage scientist named Doktor Kaboom!. (I presume it’s a pseudonym. Either that, or his grandparents had it changed from Kaboomowitz at Ellis Island.) From the trailer, I gleaned that Doktor Kaboom!’s primary mission, as one might imagine, is making various household objects go kaboom. Watching him catapult a banana across the stage, I realized exactly how Doktor Kaboom! and his ilk perpetuate myths about scientists.<\/p>\n

“He’s completely misrepresenting us,” I complained to my wife as the video clip played. “He’s making us look awesome.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Media portrayal of scientists is pretty much a binary state. Either we’re boring automatons in lab coats, babbling incomprehensibly, or we’re like Doctor Kaboom!, hiding the 80% of the job that’s not particularly exciting. Why do it, then? Because the other 20% of it is worth it.<\/p>\n

One nit, though:<\/p>\n

We are distrusted, feared, but most of all, misunderstood. We work, after all, in one of the only two professions that idiomatically follow the word “mad” — the other such profession being “hatter.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The author forgets “cow.” Not that that is a profession to which one aspires. Outside of India.<\/p>\n

via ZapperZ <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Experimental Error: Don’t Try This at Home I recently watched the online trailer for a stage scientist named Doktor Kaboom!. (I presume it’s a pseudonym. Either that, or his grandparents had it changed from Kaboomowitz at Ellis Island.) From the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6120\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}