On the newsworthiness of clever bastards

bq. _Einstein can’t be classed as witless.
He claimed atoms were the littlest.
When you did a bit of splitting-em-ness
Frighten everybody shitless_

“Jenny”:http://network.nature.com/people/UE19877E8/blog/2008/09/29/in-which-science-becomes-a-sport-–-hypothetically-speaking is talking about turning science into a spectator sport. Heather, I think, is volunteering to be the anchorman on the evening news.

If, I think the argument goes, it is important for people to know/sells newspapers that a washed-up actress has been arrested for driving under the influence of prescription medication¹ or that a rugby player is threatening to beat up a football player over a girl², then surely the continuing story of our continuing epic struggle against the very forces of Nature³ herself deserves a few column inches?

What we are doing, those of us who aren’t failed editors at any rate, is actually pretty damned important. We’re trying to find out how things work, and eventually how to fix it when it breaks. And it’s a bloody, bitter struggle sometimes. It has passion, pathos, despair, triumph and elation, the deepest depths and the highest heights and even (if you’re lucky) wild sex.

It would make stunning TV.

What we need to do is get it out of the hands of the lawyers and the PR droids and the marketing managers, back into the hands of the real live scientists who are actually doing it.

And people will watch/listen/read. There are people getting very heated on YouTube about quantum physics! And we all know that the only thing quantum physics has given us is some confused-looking cats. Just imagine what interest real science would engender.

Geeks of the world unite! Throw off your labcoats and get a camera. Let’s see you give, ducky.

_There ain’t half been some clever bastards.
Now that we’ve had some,
let’s hope that there’s lots more to come._

fn1. Daily Mail

² The Sun

³ That’s Nature the mythical personification of the natural world, not Nature the evil publishing conglomerate our generous hosts. But you knew that.

⁴ The URL for The Sun online contains ‘sol’, which my inner geek finds unspeakably funny. Maybe that’s why I’m not on TV. Yet.