A 21-year-old undergraduate majoring in astronomy at Berkeley, along with a recently graduated Comp Sci friend, were busted for giving pot-laced cookies to their flatmates. Evidently one guy complained about feeling sick, and it snowballed from there. It’s possible he was simply high, and had never experienced it before. Several residents were hospitalized, but it’s not clear if there was something bad in the cookies, or if the police might have suggested that something was wrong, adding to the hysteria. It sounds like the consumers were not aware there was marijuana in the cookies, and were in a state when the cops came. It’s really hard to tell from the stories — and this was on Reuters as well, so the story is everywhere.
The press is treating this as a silly story. The only serious note about this is if the students really didn’t tell the others the cookies were of the Alice B. Toklas variety. That’s very uncool, and if true, is worse than bogarting.
But the astronomy angle is the one that made me laugh. I imagine the idea of an astronomer taking drugs, mild or otherwise, is a shock to a lot of people, which may be why the newspaper emphasized it. It’s a major misconception that astronomers are nerdy, drinking nothing harder than Jolt and reading journal papers at parties. I know quite a few like that (including one who actually does sit off in a corner and reads The Astrophysics Journal at parties), of course, but they are a minority. Drugs aside, a lot of astronomers are cool, too. We dance, we joke, we laugh. Some take drugs, and some don’t. I swear, more real work — making collaborations, brainstorming ideas, and just plain gossip-inspired research — is done at bars at astronomy meetings than in any University lecture hall. I’ve seen it happen many times. I wonder how many billion-dollar projects started off with a drink or two?
September 12th, 2006 at 9:59 pm
It’s true, physicists too: I’ve argued that our collaboration meetings shouldn’t be hosted by universities, but by the bars nextdoor to universities. The bar tab would roughly equal the registration fee.
September 12th, 2006 at 10:30 pm
And computer scientists…I’m surprised their meetings don’t have a three-toke minimum. How else can you explain Befunge?
September 12th, 2006 at 10:39 pm
Precedent: Carl Sagan, pothead.
September 12th, 2006 at 10:55 pm
Hmm. I never bothered to look up “bogart” before. I learned it from summer camp when somebody would take a big serving of something at a meal or use a huge water bottle to take an unfair amount out of the water cooler, and a leader would have to yell, “Hey, stop bogarting the ****,” whatever it was.
It had never occured to me that it was meant specifically to be used in the context of illegal drugs.
Now I know (and knowing is half the battle…).
September 12th, 2006 at 11:18 pm
Not too long ago two high school teenagers in North Texas were charged with felonies for poisoning staff at a local highschool with pot laced mufffins.
News Link
September 12th, 2006 at 11:32 pm
Now, BA, you know that no astronomer should ever smoke pot.
You might get ashes on your pocket protector.
September 13th, 2006 at 12:15 am
You’re kidding, right? I always assumed that if one could not travel the universe via traditional ways…
September 13th, 2006 at 12:16 am
“…The only serious note about this is if the students really didn’t tell the others the cookies were of the Alice B. Toklas variety. That’s very uncool, and if true, is worse than bogarting…”
My my my…he’s awfully cognizant of the lingo, ain’t he?
Evidently another of The Last of The Unreconstructed Flower Children…
…welcome, my brother…
September 13th, 2006 at 12:32 am
Knowing some of my Berkeley student friends, the pot was probably fresh but the cookie dough was way past its shelf life.
September 13th, 2006 at 12:46 am
Didn’t Francis and Crick decide on the experiment to elucidate the structure of DNA in the local pub?
September 13th, 2006 at 5:22 am
how else to open up the mind to the many possible paths?
Read Dune by F. Herbert with open mind…Melange IS a mind altering substance…as is anything a person eats, drinks, or inhales.
Lunatik
September 13th, 2006 at 6:33 am
Well, now that the secret’s out
— I think I buy more beer during a 5 day conference than I normally do in a couple of months at home (nevermind the occasional kegs at the poster sessions). But that’s where the science is…in the break rooms over coffee, over lunch, over a pitcher at the bar, those sleep-deprived conversations on the way to the airport; everywhere but in the sessions.
We need to start having conferences with no scheduled talks, just coffee breaks.
Can’t speak for any other mind-altering substances, but I would not be surprised by that, either. They just don’t advertise those parties on the conference message boards
.
September 13th, 2006 at 6:36 am
Anecdotal evidence: My personal experience is that astronomers and physicists tend to stick with traditional central nervous system depressants. I’m a beer and scotch-fueled astronomer. Most of my university education took place in bars, and since this is Canada, doughnut shops.
September 13th, 2006 at 7:46 am
The one Canadian astronomer I ever knew (at BERKELEY no less..!) back in the late ’80s (and I can’t find mention of him now anywhere on the WWW) if anything got less creative with a few pitchers in him. He told me in no uncertain (or printable) terms that colliding black holes weren’t worth modeling because it could never happen- of course a couple of years later the modeling showed up on the cover of Science or Nature (I forget which). I hope not everyone is like this.
Jess Tauber
September 13th, 2006 at 7:53 am
squawky said:
>We need to start having conferences with no scheduled talks, just coffee breaks.
Welcome to the “Unconference”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconference
September 13th, 2006 at 8:04 am
[...] “Spaced Out“. Uma história curiosa no Bad Astronomy, que mostra para exemplificar como por vezes surgem as novidades em Astronomia; [...]
September 13th, 2006 at 8:13 am
I’m wondering whether the astronomical community would consider it sacrilege or creative to make a bong out of a telescope?
September 13th, 2006 at 9:20 am
@RussianBlue:
Francis Crick may have been experimenting with LSD when he and Watson were figuring out the double helix.
September 13th, 2006 at 9:52 am
Jess,
Everyone has a different reaction to intoxicants. That’s why we can distinguish between “mean drunks” and “friendly drunks” and “girls gone wild”.
In any case, I don’t think anyone is suggesting that booze makes you smarter. I’d suspect that the vast amount of scientific work that gets done over a brew has more to do with the informal bar setting rather than the beverage of choice of the participants.
September 13th, 2006 at 9:53 am
You’ll probably post about it later if you find it important enough, but
the IAU appears to have decided to rename Pluto to something else…
http://www.newscientistspace.com/article/dn10028-pluto-added-to-official-minor-planet-list.html
wasn’t simply being demoted not enough?
September 13th, 2006 at 9:56 am
Darn.. my mistake.. didn’t hear about it yet and it turned out to be an old article
September 13th, 2006 at 10:23 am
Of course astronomers sometimes dance with the blue monkey.
Ok, (Puff) how about this. . .
Let’s take the slope of a line. . . at a single point!
WOAH!!! Calculus!!!!
September 13th, 2006 at 10:46 am
Back in high school, I subscribed to Scientific American. I remember that anytime I came across some midboggling article, I’d think “where in the heck do they get these crazy ideas?” Then I’d flip to the back cover, which 99% of the time was an add for absolut vodka. Question answered…
September 13th, 2006 at 11:10 am
“Bogart” predates drug use, initially referring to casually removing the cigarette from ones mouth and finding it unexpectedly stuck on dried saliva (note Bogart’s ability to talk with a live cigarette in his mouth). The fingers, instead of removing the cigarette, slide down the cigarette and burn on the lit end, completing the “bogart” maneuver.
This has, of course, evolved somewhat since inception.
September 13th, 2006 at 11:11 am
Sorry, I should not have said “predates drug use” obviously.
I meant that the drug-culture usage of the term is more recent than the origins.
September 13th, 2006 at 2:03 pm
Sitting in bars with a beer or two shovelling the BS is a good way to come up with new and original ideas. All mine have turned out to be stupid when viewed soberly, but a smarter scientist may be able to take drunken bonehead ideas and extract a useful outside-the-box nugget.
September 13th, 2006 at 2:53 pm
all i remember about talking in bars the conversation was usually pretty low brow. But i heard stories like this before on the TLC they had story like this plus when i told it work she told a story about eating cookies her son was baking and took one of the largest which was laced.
September 13th, 2006 at 2:54 pm
A nit but maybe important enough…. They worded it as…”A UC Berkeley astrophysics student …”.
Astrophysics is just shy of the acme of the sciences. The public regards astrophysicists synonymously with rocket scientists. If the word “astrophysicist” was easier to say, the “rocket scientists” phrase would leave the planet.
Any misbehavior by these folks is newsworthy, apparently. FWIW, some of the ones I knew from high school who made it to the Ivy league had considerable dance time with Mary Jane. So, I doubt many are too surprised. [Though none were girls, admittedly.]
But, what do I know, I ain’t no [choose one].
September 13th, 2006 at 4:59 pm
Let me get this straight, Phil … the most criticism you can offer against someone who gave illegal mind altering drugs to people without telling them – is that this is “uncool” ? I hope there aren’t any parents reading this.
September 13th, 2006 at 5:19 pm
Personally, I was thinking that they should be charged with attempted murder. After all, they purposefully tricked people into injecting a poison.
*shurgs*
September 14th, 2006 at 7:41 am
Chip,,,,dough has a shelf life? You mean, it’s not supposed to be green and furry?
Dang, and I thought that was just the bud,,,
GAry 7
September 14th, 2006 at 2:44 pm
Oh come on, gopher65, marijuana isn’t cyanide.
Look, I’m of a very strict mind on malicious intent. I happen to think restaurant workers who spit in customers’ food should be prosecuted for assault. But attempted murder? No, for it to be attempted murder there has to be intent to kill. Marijuana isn’t exactly the best substance to validate that accusation.
I think 10 years in prison is probably a bit much. I’m thinking something along the lines of probation and ~100 hrs community service, maybe something to do with drug addicts. Or maybe scraping old gum off sidewalks. With a toothpick.
September 14th, 2006 at 3:12 pm
Gopher, alcohol is far more of a posion than THC, and spiking a punchbowl is treated comically in many, many movies. Reader, that paragraph was done in a joking tone. I purposely didn’t come down one way or the other in that paragraph, or the entire post.
September 14th, 2006 at 5:17 pm
I would look on spiking a punch bowl as malicious as well. As for stuff being threated comically in media, a recent episode of Stargate Atlantis was a comic episode about a man who drugged people into thinking he was awesome. Including his 6 (7?) wives, one of whom he admits absolutely hated him before he drugged her. (I’m not making that up:P, the episode was called “Irresistible” and aired a few months ago)
I’m sure the writers didn’t consider that they were writing rape scenes. It just honestly never occurred to them. They are just stupid, that’s all.
September 14th, 2006 at 6:22 pm
Actually Phil, some of us drink good vintages of fine reds…
