They say that Steve Caplan is a mild-mannered scientist. But he pops into a phone-booth–no wait–that’s a thing of the past–he pops into the darkroom, and out comes Dr. Mean…<\/p>\n
Well, I do have a temper. Perhaps it’s slow to boil, but occasionally I lose it. I’m human. And what tends to set me off is an overdose of “ego-display”- also known as “peacockization”. And of course we scientists are” full of it”…<\/p>\n
Several years ago I was minding my own business in my office when my computer again alerted me of an incoming e-mail. I was awaiting several sets of critiques, from journals and grant agencies, so my pulse took off and I nervously toggled to my e-mail program.<\/p>\n
What awaited me was neither manuscript or grant critiques. It was a letter sent by an affiliated faculty member (in a different institution) informing every member of my department–students, technicians, post-docs, and faculty–that this affiliated (“courtesy”) faculty member had just published a paper in such-and-such journal, and as it was an important body of work, he was certain we’d all like to read it. The paper itself was attached.<\/p>\n
In goes mild-mannered Steve into the darkroom and out comes Dr. Mean, fully regressed.<\/p>\n
Claws sharpened, clickety-clack, Dr. Mean comprises the following e-mail (more or less) and “Replies to All”…<\/p>\n
“Dear Dr. X, Thank you so much for your consideration and for kindly providing this most fascinating body of work to us all. I reckon that some of us were having trouble sleeping without it. By the way, FYI, there is a wonderful little tool provided by NIH called PUBMED (http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/), and it’s great because every researcher can find exactly what he\/she is interested in. You should definitely try it.<\/p>\n
With best regards,<\/p>\n
Dr. Mean<\/p>\n
Ps. Did it work? Don’t know–never heard from him again…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
They say that Steve Caplan is a mild-mannered scientist. But he pops into a phone-booth–no wait–that’s a thing of the past–he pops into the darkroom, and out comes Dr. Mean… Well, I do have a temper. Perhaps it’s slow to … Continue reading