Overly honest scientists

I just discovered two new twitter tags, good for a chuckle or three. At least if you’ve ever spent time in grad school:

#overlyhonestmethods and #overlyhonestreviews

I, at least, laughed at some of them :slight_smile:

I think this says it all:

It almost makes me wish Twitter had been around back in my lab days. This might have gotten me to sign up, just to tweet some of the shenanigans that went on:

“Sample agitated vigorously for 30 seconds because senior researcher spilled liquid nitrogen on my leg.”

“On activation, protocol required announcement that subject was alive, because we used a knife switch left over from a project from the 50s.”

Ha!

Reminds me of the research glossary:


GLOSSARY FOR RESEARCH PAPERS:  Strictly Speaking
THEY WRITE:                                  THEY MEAN:

It has long been known that...                I haven't bothered to look up
                                              the original reference

...of great theoretical and practical         ...interesting to me
importance
While it has not been possible to             The experiments didn't work
provide definite answers to these             out, but I figured I could at 
questions...                                  least get a publication out 
                                              of it.

The W-Pb system was chosen as                 The fellow in the next lab had
especially suitable to show the               some already made up
predicted behavior...
High purity...                                Composition unknown except
Very high purity...                           for the exaggerated claims of
Extremely high purity...                      the supplier
Super-purity...
Spectroscopically pure...
A fiducial reference line...                  A scratch
Three of the samples were                     The results of the others 
chosen for detailed study...                  didn't make sense and were 
                                              ignored..

...handled with extreme care during           ...not dropped on the floor
the experiments
Typical results are shown...                  The best results are shown...
Although some detail has been lost            It is impossible to tell from 
in reproduction, it is clear from the         the micrograph
original micrograph that...
Presumably at longer times...                 I didn't take the time to find 
                                              out

The agreement with the predicted              fair
curve is excellent
good                                          poor
satisfactory                                  doubtful
fair                                          imaginary
...as good as could be expected               non-existent
These results will be reported at             I might get around to this
a later date                                  sometime
The most reliable values are those            He was a student of mine
of Jones
It is suggested that...
It is believed that...                        I think...
It may be that...
It is generally believed that....             I have such a good objection 
                                              to this answer that I shall 
                                              now raise it.
It is clear that much additional              I don't understand it
work will be required before a
complete understanding...
Unfortunately, a quantitative theory          Neither does anybody else
to account for these effects has not
been formulated
Correct within an order of magnitude          Wrong
It is to be hoped that this work              This paper isn't very good but
will stimulate further work in the field      neither are any of the others
                                              on this miserable subject

Thanks are due to Joe Glotz for               Glotz did the work and Doe
assistance with the experiments and           explained what it meant.
to John Doe for valuable discussions.