01 August 2008

Scientists and the Far Side

In his 10 year retrospective, Gary Larson mentioned that he was surprised that he had a following among scientists. Speaking as a scientist who 'got' all his cartoons, including the ones he said were often misunderstood or not understood at all*, I'm not surprised. For all that there were the talking cows, chickens, etc., and aliens and other unlikely sorts of things, there was a very important scientific theme to the cartoon (actually including those things).

That is, the universe is a strange and interesting place. One of the reasons that we get in to science is because of that. With all the glory and mystery to the universe, what a wonderful thing it is to be a scientist and get paid to try to understand some of it!

*You might want to keep that in mind if I seem a little strange. I probably am. :-)
Then again, see the difference (mentioned in that volume) between Jane Goodall's response to a cartoon and her office person's. Another datum for scientists having better senses of humor than usually portrayed.

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