Comments on: Marvellous Nobel Antics

By: Three Proposals of Marriage | Cosmic Variance

Three Proposals of Marriage | Cosmic Variance — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 01:55:34 +0000

[...] I then turned and walked away only to be facing my good friend, Los Angeles Theatre scence playwright and colleague from the School of Theatre, Oliver Mayer. I said the same opening sentence to him and again we completed the joke together. We sat, had more wine (it’s 4:30pm on a weekday, but you don’t install a new Provost everyday…..) and I told him about my standard bugbear about which you’ve heard so many times: Better representation of science, scientists, and the scientific process in the arts and media should be part of the battle of increasing the public’s awareness and appreciation of science and the crucial role it plays in society, etc…… I won’t repeat myself again (see e.g. here and here, in comments). He caught on immediately, and spoke of the fact that in all the the characters and scenarios he’s written about, he’s never explored scientists and science, as it is outside his realm of experience. So I then spoke of my general frustrations about this being the case not just for playwrights, but also for actors, filmmakers, jrounalists, etc. We spoke about speaking more (you know, “my people will call your people” -except neither of us are important enough to have “people” to call each other-) and we parted. [...]

By: Mad and Bad | Cosmic Variance

Mad and Bad | Cosmic Variance — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 17:32:29 +0000

[...] Remember our occasional chats on this blog (e.g. here and here, in comments) about portrayals of scientists in the media? Here’s some more chatter on Pharyngula. [...]

By: Clifford

Clifford — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 17:23:22 +0000

I think that in most cases, yes, he’s right. I think that is one of the main themes of a lot of the original characters, and the tradition was followed quite strictly. But there may be exceptions.

-cvj

By: janet

janet — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 17:17:49 +0000

My husband pointed out that deliberately doing something to yourself that results in superpowers generally turns you into a supervillain. I’m not enough of a comics afficionado to evaluate this statement.

By: Redshift

Redshift — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 13:26:32 +0000

If he was a scientist and became a villain, he’d have to be “Doctor Pylori” or “Doctor Ulcer.” For some reason, villains are more likely to be “Doctor” than heroes, even scientist heroes (“Mr. Fantastic?”) Maybe it’s the absence of the superior attitude required to become a villain.

Matter-eater Lad is a brilliant reference; I hadn’t thought of him. Of course, my knowledge of him is largely from the Legion of Substitute Heroes, rather than his original appearances.

By: Torbjorn Larsson

Torbjorn Larsson — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 12:44:07 +0000

I would like the hero to be female instead; I cannot shake Pharyngulas description of flagellated bacterias ‘wiggly bottoms’ from my mind…

( http://pharyngula.org/ ; in a post describing an evolutionist prayer as a contrast to the creationist/fundamentalistic version.)

By: JoAnne

JoAnne — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 04:28:28 +0000

Janet: Thank you for providing some nice Halloween costume ideas!

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 03:33:29 +0000

I’ve always thought a bodkin was like a needle.

By: Clifford

Clifford — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 02:46:12 +0000

Pyracantha! You know about Matter-eater Lad?! Wow! I had no idea that there were others out there who would recall DC’s (rather bizarre) Legion of Super-Heroes, never mind one of the “lesser” ones. In fact, my suggestion “Ulcer Boy” was to resonate with “Ultra Boy” in my mind, and I did notr trouble to explain it since I thought no-one would get it.

Janet: I really like the way our superhero (if that is what he is) is shaping up….

citrine: Oooooh, there are tons of imagined examples, some resulting in all sortsof outlandish things. And of course there’s the scientist in “The Fly”.

-cvj

By: Sean

Sean — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 01:36:18 +0000

Arun, a knife? I had always thought it was a spoon. A knife is just crazy. But indeed, that's what a bodkin is, apparently -- although it may have been blunt.

By: Pyracantha

Pyracantha — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 01:33:49 +0000

“Matter-eater Lad” from the planet Bismoll! (DC Comics, Legion of Super-Heroes)

By: Arun

Arun — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 23:45:06 +0000

Well, here is Newton, who stuck a knife behind his eyeball.

I tooke a bodkine gh & put it betwixt my eye & [the] bone as neare to [the] backside of my eye as I could: & pressing my eye [with the] end of it (soe as to make [the] curvature a, bcdef in my eye) there appeared severall white darke & coloured circles r, s, t, &c. Which circles were plainest when I continued to rub my eye [with the] point of [the] bodkine, but if I held my eye & [the] bodkin still, though I continued to presse my eye [with] it yet [the] circles would grow faint & often disappeare untill I removed [them] by moving my eye or [the] bodkin.

If [the] experiment were done in a light roome so [that] though my eyes were shut some light would get through their lidds There appeared a greate broade blewish darke circle outmost (as ts), & [within] that another light spot srs whose colour was much like [that] in [the] rest of [the] eye as at k. Within [which] spot appeared still another blew spot r espetially if I pressed my eye hard & [with] a small pointed bodkin. & outmost at vt appeared a verge of light.

http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/Exhibitions/Footprints_of_the_Lion/private_scholar.html

By: janet

janet — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 23:32:33 +0000

I just told a friend who’s a medical illustrator about this discussion, and she said that the H. pylori is actually a very cute little bacterium — it looks like a paramecium with a party hat on. This suggests some costuming ideas for our hero. See, for example: http://www.cellsalive.com/helico.htm

I should say in explanation, or possibly in my defense, that I’ve been thinking all afternoon about gastroesophageal reflux disease in premature infants, so I may be a little obsessed with GI disorders. I’ve developed great respect for the lower esophageal sphincter.

By: citrine

citrine — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 22:37:59 +0000

Physics doesn’t provide much fodder for such dramatic self-experimentation, does it now?

By: janet

janet — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 22:35:32 +0000

No, wait: he would also be able to spew stomach acid at his enemies!

By: janet

janet — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 22:28:49 +0000

Maybe his power would be the ability to transform matter by consuming and digesting it. Not the way that all of us do — his digestive tract would have to be able to take dangerous substances and render them harmless. Of course, this would make him one of the slower superheroes, unless he ate a really high-fiber diet.

By: Clifford

Clifford — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 21:53:07 +0000

But what’s his power, spyder?

-cvj

By: spyder

spyder — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 21:48:25 +0000

Ulcer Man w/ his intrepid wiser sidekick “Alfred” Warren… that is..

i noticed it was the young impestuous one who gobbled the brew.

By: citrine

citrine — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 21:36:36 +0000

I guess you are what you eat.

By: Elliot

Elliot — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 20:33:34 +0000

Was this a full blown article or just a digest?