It’s a world of bottom quarks and arsole compounds – so why is science still so serious? Levity can make it all a lot easier to understand
Science is an infamously dry endeavour. The noble practice seeks to answer humanity’s most inscrutable questions. How did life begin? What is consciousness? Why does naming cows increase their milk yield? Within this austere framework, there is little room for levity. I think most scientists would agree there is nothing funny about bottom quarks, nor the five-membered organoarsenic compound known as arsole.
So I wasn’t surprised by the findings of a recent peer-reviewed paper, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, that surveyed the use of humour across 531 scientific talks at 14 academic conferences. Stefano Mammola, from the Italian National Research Council, and colleagues found that on average scientists delivered only 1.6 jokes per presentation, of which 66% generated “only polite chuckles”. Science and comedy, it seems, don’t mix.
Helen Pilcher is a science writer and the author of This Book May Cause Side Effects
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