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)
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Any ACS meeting. The size, navigating the US customs and border to get into the US (and trying to figure out whether it is business or pleasure, both, neither or something else, whether to admit to being a chemist, worse if you work in NMR), but mainly the overwhelming size of these conferences.
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Strike a match – that’s science.
Pray it lit a second time – that’s faith. Patience. Test of faith!
String theory conferences are the scariest. The Emperor’s 10^1000 sets of clothes are amazing but not nearly so amazing as the Emperor himself. One is given to wonder if there is even a parade.