Tag: science humor

What’s better than brain doping? Cello Scrotum is what.

OK I have a lot to learn. I was (and still am) pretty proud of the April 1 prank I pulled off this year with many other bloggers announcing a fake crackdown on brain doping. But my joke is not even close to this one. A letter in a recent issue of BMJ has announced that the malady known as Cello Scrotum was in fact made up. Why did they make this up? In response to a publication about guitar nipple (for more on this see CNN and the Times Online). And now they have confessed only 35 years later.

And I must say – God Bless Pubmed Central. Because here is the original very brief letter which I am posting below:

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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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Palin announces opposition to research on Homo sapiens

Sarah Palin today has followed up her attack on fruit fly research by condemning much of the NIH Budget and a variety of other scientific earmarks.  At a town hall meeting yesterday while campaigning in Guam, Palin said

“We asked federal agencies to give us a summary of key words relating to research projects and we found an enormous number of them focused on homosapiens. I kid you not.”

When asked by a teenage audience member to explain what was wrong with this research Palin said

“You probably are a homosapiens no? Or have many friends that are?  What we need to do is spend money on helping people change and not on studying these homosapiens”

The teen tried to respond but was escorted forcefully out of the hall by security while Palin continued on in her meeting.  At the end of the meeting Palin returned to the topic of science research and said “If elected, the McCain-Palin ticket will reallocate federal funds to eliminate waste on topics like homosapiens and fruit flies.  Enough is enough.”
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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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