Silly Science (Neanderthals in the News Derail)

[xSilverPhinx]

whoever said that science had to be serious?

Scientists are jesters and clowns, it is known. 

[hermes2015]

whoever said that science had to be serious?

Scientists are jesters and clowns, it is known. 

The university research labs I worked in as a student were a hybrid of The Goon Show and Monty Python.

[xSilverPhinx]

whoever said that science had to be serious?

Scientists are jesters and clowns, it is known. 

The university research labs I worked in as a student were a hybrid of The Goon Show and Monty Python.

Same! It's amazing anybody gets any work done...  

[hermes2015]

whoever said that science had to be serious?

Scientists are jesters and clowns, it is known. 

The university research labs I worked in as a student were a hybrid of The Goon Show and Monty Python.

Same! It's amazing anybody gets any work done...

I used to put liquid nitrogen in a plastic bottle, close the top tightly, put it under someone's chair, and wait for the bang. Another guy loved to make NI3 and spread it on the floor in the evening. By the next morning it was, of course, dry.

[xSilverPhinx]

whoever said that science had to be serious?

Scientists are jesters and clowns, it is known. 

The university research labs I worked in as a student were a hybrid of The Goon Show and Monty Python.

Same! It's amazing anybody gets any work done...

I used to put liquid nitrogen in a plastic bottle, close the top tightly, put it under someone's chair, and wait for the bang. Another guy loved to make NI3 and spread it on the floor in the evening. By the next morning it was, of course, dry.

That liquid nitrogen prank is a good idea...



No, I can't pull that one on somebody, I'm the serious one of the group.

[hermes2015]

/quote]

Scientists are jesters and clowns, it is known. 

The university research labs I worked in as a student were a hybrid of The Goon Show and Monty Python.

Same! It's amazing anybody gets any work done...

I used to put liquid nitrogen in a plastic bottle, close the top tightly, put it under someone's chair, and wait for the bang. Another guy loved to make NI3 and spread it on the floor in the evening. By the next morning it was, of course, dry.

That liquid nitrogen prank is a good idea...



No, I can't pull that one on somebody, I'm the serious one of the group.

Sorry, but the googly eyes give the game away.

[xSilverPhinx]

whoever said that science had to be serious?

Scientists are jesters and clowns, it is known. 

The university research labs I worked in as a student were a hybrid of The Goon Show and Monty Python.

Same! It's amazing anybody gets any work done...

I used to put liquid nitrogen in a plastic bottle, close the top tightly, put it under someone's chair, and wait for the bang. Another guy loved to make NI3 and spread it on the floor in the evening. By the next morning it was, of course, dry.

That liquid nitrogen prank is a good idea...



No, I can't pull that one on somebody, I'm the serious one of the group.

Sorry, but the googly eyes give the game away.

What, these googly eyes?

[hermes2015]

whoever said that science had to be serious?

Scientists are jesters and clowns, it is known. 

The university research labs I worked in as a student were a hybrid of The Goon Show and Monty Python.

Same! It's amazing anybody gets any work done...

I used to put liquid nitrogen in a plastic bottle, close the top tightly, put it under someone's chair, and wait for the bang. Another guy loved to make NI3 and spread it on the floor in the evening. By the next morning it was, of course, dry.

That liquid nitrogen prank is a good idea...



No, I can't pull that one on somebody, I'm the serious one of the group.

Sorry, but the googly eyes give the game away.

What, these googly eyes?

Yes, and we are in serious trouble for derailing this serious thread, so we'd better stop.

[xSilverPhinx]

whoever said that science had to be serious?

Scientists are jesters and clowns, it is known. 

The university research labs I worked in as a student were a hybrid of The Goon Show and Monty Python.

Same! It's amazing anybody gets any work done...

I used to put liquid nitrogen in a plastic bottle, close the top tightly, put it under someone's chair, and wait for the bang. Another guy loved to make NI3 and spread it on the floor in the evening. By the next morning it was, of course, dry.

That liquid nitrogen prank is a good idea...



No, I can't pull that one on somebody, I'm the serious one of the group.

Sorry, but the googly eyes give the game away.

What, these googly eyes?

Yes, and we are in serious trouble for derailing this serious thread, so we'd better stop.

Yeah, I was thinking of splitting the derail into its own space before Recusant saw what had happened to his thread. I was just letting it grow a little, you know, living dangerously. Just a little. 



But please, more stories of lab adventures!

[Dark Lightning]

whoever said that science had to be serious?

Scientists are jesters and clowns, it is known. 

The university research labs I worked in as a student were a hybrid of The Goon Show and Monty Python.

Same! It's amazing anybody gets any work done...

I used to put liquid nitrogen in a plastic bottle, close the top tightly, put it under someone's chair, and wait for the bang. Another guy loved to make NI3 and spread it on the floor in the evening. By the next morning it was, of course, dry.

When I was a senior in high school, at the awards assembly at year-end, some wags had got into the auditorium and painted NI₃ in many spots on the floor. The random popping was driving the faculty nuts, but those of us in the know of the why of the noise just smiled quietly. I was not one of those wags, that time.

[hermes2015]

Part of my PhD research involved looking at the photolytic fissioning of very unstable O-I bonds in acyl hypoiodite compounds. They are so unstable that I had to work in the lab at night in total darkness (literally and figuratively!); even the red darkroom lights used when developing and printing B&W films caused the O-I bonds to break. On many occasions I caused near heart failure in people who came walking into the lab looking for a light switch, when they encountered an apparition in a white lab coat.

[xSilverPhinx]

whoever said that science had to be serious?

Scientists are jesters and clowns, it is known. 

The university research labs I worked in as a student were a hybrid of The Goon Show and Monty Python.

Same! It's amazing anybody gets any work done...

I used to put liquid nitrogen in a plastic bottle, close the top tightly, put it under someone's chair, and wait for the bang. Another guy loved to make NI3 and spread it on the floor in the evening. By the next morning it was, of course, dry.

When I was a senior in high school, at the awards assembly at year-end, some wags had got into the auditorium and painted NI₃ in many spots on the floor. The random popping was driving the faculty nuts, but those of us in the know of the why of the noise just smiled quietly. I was not one of those wags, that time.

That's a good one...good one...

[xSilverPhinx]

Part of my PhD research involved looking at the photolytic fissioning of very unstable O-I bonds in acyl hypoiodite compounds. They are so unstable that I had to work in the lab at night in total darkness (literally and figuratively!); even the red darkroom lights used when developing and printing B&W films caused the O-I bonds to break. On many occasions I caused near heart failure in people who came walking into the lab looking for a light switch, when they encountered an apparition in a white lab coat.

Ha! 

I don't sneak up on people but end up scaring them quite often. They turn around and see that I'm right there and jump in fright, or are startled when I suddenly voice greetings to the back of their head. At the lab I've learnt to speak softly to let them know I'm there when they don't see me approaching, especially when they're carrying or mixing reagents because otherwise they're sure to drop them.

[billy rubin]

when i was a student i broke into one of my professorz officez through the drop ceiling and released six or eight milk bottlez full of various drozophila mutants. red eyes, white eyez, as many kinds as i could. then i zprinkled flightless curly winged mutantz all over his desk and retreated.

i had expected them to stay in there and puzzle him, but inztead they were all sucked into the ventilation syztem, which was shared over five floors of labz and offices.

the next day the entire building was infested with a minor plague of mutant fruit fliez, and the they were all over the doughnuts in the departmental office.

i admitted nothing.

[xSilverPhinx]

when i was a student i broke into one of my professorz officez through the drop ceiling and released six or eight milk bottlez full of various drozophila mutants. red eyes, white eyez, as many kinds as i could. then i zprinkled flightless curly winged mutantz all over his desk and retreated.

i had expected them to stay in there and puzzle him, but inztead they were all sucked into the ventilation syztem, which was shared over five floors of labz and offices.

the next day the entire building was infested with a minor plague of mutant fruit fliez, and the they were all over the doughnuts in the departmental office.

i admitted nothing.