It turns out that today is holy experiment day. Technically, this apparently means that we’re supposed to test whether God exists or will reward our desires (perhaps by praying for more places that serve yummy salsa on the East Coast, and then seeing if more appear?). However, a more fun (and nerdy) interpretation refers back to the original Batman series, in which Robin (Batman’s sidekick, for you uninitiated) would continually make weird comments of the format ‘Holy insert random word here, Batman!’ Being fairly young when this show was on TV (in reruns), I thought this (and the cheesy ‘Pow’ and ‘Blam’ graphics of the fight scenes) was the highlight of the show. So, ‘Holy experiment day, Batman!’ just screams out to me…

The thing I wondered about is, what might inspire Robin to shout such a thing? Had he perhaps wandered into a giant science fair? Did he mistakenly go to the ACS meeting? Or was he shipwrecked on the island of Dr. Moreau?

On a related note, what’s your scariest vision of a collection of scientists? For example, what conferences are you too intimidated to go to, and why?

Catherine (associate editor, Nature Chemical Biology)

India has allocated Rs 85 crore in its 2008-09 budget to woo back students into science. The programme — Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) — will groom meritorious science students from Class XII onwards, offering them scholarships to groom a career in science. The idea is to churn out more scientists and offer them attractive jobs in leading research institutes of the country. The fund for multi-disciplinary research in frontier areas has also been hiked from Rs 370 crore to Rs 415 crore. The overall spending in science and technology and environment has increased significantly from Rs 7,742 crore to Rs 9,283 crore.

Does the future of doing science in this country look brighter?