{"id":667,"date":"2008-09-02T17:05:35","date_gmt":"2008-09-02T17:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/2008\/09\/02\/in_which_geeks_become_celebrities\/"},"modified":"2008-09-02T17:05:35","modified_gmt":"2008-09-02T17:05:35","slug":"in_which_geeks_become_celebrities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/2008\/09\/02\/in_which_geeks_become_celebrities\/","title":{"rendered":"In which geeks become celebrities"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my real-life social circles, I am known for being fashionably late. So it’s only fitting that I mention the recent SciBlog 2008 conference a scandalous three days after the event, even though the hangovers have faded, dozens of reports have been duly uploaded and the blogospheric buzz has moved on to Open Science<\/a>, Non-virtual interactions<\/a> and trouser-eating aliens<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"
\nLuvvies, divas and tears before bedtime<\/strong> Richard<\/a> and Henry<\/a> run across the beach<\/del> bar towards each other in slow motion, while Matt<\/a> chaperones<\/p>\n

\nAs Ben Goldacre mentioned in his keynote speech, the fame aspect of the conference was intriguing. One of the first things I noticed during morning coffee was that there was a lot of love in the room; you could hardly move for people swooping down and squealing things along the lines of Ooo, you’re<\/strong> X!<\/em> (where X = hip, trendy well-known A-list blogger with a five-digit Technorati sperm count). A few obviously confused people even subjected yours truly to this treatment, no doubt mistaking me for some other D- or E-list celeb. To add to the general furore, the paps and journos were out in force, including microphone-waving podcasters and a very persistent newshound from the Times Higher<\/em> who stayed til the bitter and drunken end trying to get someone, anyone<\/em> to divulge something suitably salacious. <\/p>\n

\nOne of the things I have always liked about science is that we have relatively easy access to our celebs. While you might go your entire life without ever laying eyes on the likes of Paris Hilton, the movers, shakers and Nobel laureates in your discipline are within easy striking distance at the major symposia. If you approach one up at the podium or in the bar, you will usually not get the brush-off. If you’re bold and persistent, you can have a scientific discussion about your project with one of the finest minds in the field. <\/p>\n

\nAnd if you’re really<\/em> lucky, you might even pull one at the conference disco.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my real-life social circles, I am known for being fashionably late. So it’s only fitting that I mention the recent SciBlog 2008 conference a scandalous three days after the event, even though the hangovers have faded, dozens of reports … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}