17 February 2007

Science Scout Badges

Link to the site


"Members* are:- not opposed to alcohol.- fond of IPCC reports (especially the pictures).- mostly in agreement with the "truth."- into badges.- grieving for the slow and miserable death of the Hubble Space Telescope.- possibly possessed of supernatural powers.- not in the business of total world domination- committed to the constant and diligent presentation of science stories, be it to editors, producers, directors, educators, relatives and/or friends of various ilk, in an effort to lessen the gap that is this thing we call public scientific literacy."
*of the ORDER OF THE SCIENCE SCOUTS OF
EXEMPLARY REPUTE AND ABOVE AVERAGE
PHYSIQUE

The award badges available here are really quite amusing. Proof once again that scientists definitely have much more of a sense of humour than, say, a lot of the people I work with. I mean, look at the theories of how the universe began ... and this week the science community is getting all excited because of 'dark energy' that turns everything previous on its head, and so they have to start again. I could suggest Genesis 1:1 as a good place to begin a NEW line of research, but what do I know? I wonder what badge they could invent for the day when all of sciencedom witnesses the clouds peeling back, God's voice speaking, and they have to say something like, 'you know, this Creator of the Universe stuff ... might explain a whole bunch of stuff we never really understood before'? Or it may just be the former Blair Rich Project spin doctor Alistair Campbell has more to answer for than first imagined.


I quite liked the 'sexing up science' badge, because 'sexing up' or 'the sexy part of work' or 'we can't do the sexy things until we first do the important bits' are phrases I have heard often enough in my new working environment (mostly from women) to wonder if a problem or fixation is going on here?

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