Even scientists joke, 110 ‘Nobel mockery’ in “Marconi’s Chicken”

Scientists joke too. It’s a lot. And even those awarded in Stockholm with the prestigious Nobel. Other than boring ‘laboratory rats’, researchers from all latitudes are capable of putting on ‘Oscar-worthy jokes’, jokes not even imaginable for the caliber of those who thought them. And now, to discover a gallery of 110 scientific jokes is the linguist Vito Tartamella who has collected the anecdotes in his new essay “Il pollo di Marconi” (Ed. Dedalo). “When I discovered the story of ‘Bestial Asshole’ – the signature that a physicist applied to sign a scientific work published in 1987 in the prestigious ‘Journal of Statistical Physics’ – I could not help myself. I investigated and discovered a universe of mockery “anticipates the author Vito Tartamella at the Adnkronos who will unveil the contents of his new essay at the Turin Book Fair next Saturday – May 21st. “When I learned the anecdote of ‘Bestial Asshole’ I tried to understand and investigated where this physicist came from, but I found nothing. So – Tartamella says – I contacted one of the other two authors William Hoover and asked him where the co-author with the unpronounceable name came from. Hoover told me that the magazine had rejected the article, then during a plane trip, he had heard two Italians talking about ‘a bestial asshole’. ” “No sooner said than done: after the trip the physicist decided to propose the same study again, without changing a single word, adding only at the end of the work as’ third author ‘Asshole Bestiale’. A mockery that earned him the publication of the research” . “In short, since I discovered the story and published it on my blog, I have been inundated with tales related to scientific jokes. And from there I began a careful research that has translated into 110 anecdotes that have led me straight to publish a new book “remembers the author of the essay” Parolacce “that made him famous. According to the author’s verification, “Il pollo di Marconi” is the first book that collects the jokes of scientists of the last 100 years and is “the only essay that tells the jokes of scientists, technologists, research bodies”. Starting with NASA announcing: “We have found hell on the planet Mercury” and up to the prestigious scientific journal “Nature” which publishes a study on dragons. In the roundup of scientific jokes there is also the founder of Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson, who lands in the countryside of London with a fake UFO. And then studies signed by dogs, cats or hamsters never highlighted even in the news. In the pages of the book there are also several QR codes and by framing them with the mobile phone you can see videos, photos and additional documents. The book is solidly documented and tells the jokes organized not only by Nature but also by other well-known scientific journals such as “Science”, “British medical journal”, “Scientific American” and by the most prestigious research institutions such as Cern or FermiLab. Among the protagonists of the essay there are 5 Nobel laureates: Guglielmo Marconi, Richard Feynman, Hans Bethe, Andre Geim, Enrico Fermi. And even Nikola Tesla, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, Isaac Asimov, Enrico Bombieri did not spare themselves in jokes and jokes. Some of these have even changed history: the crusade against the effects of sodium glutamate was actually born out of a bet between two rogue doctors. The ‘cellist’s scrotalgia’ has dominated medical journals for years but, as Tartamella recalls in his book, it is a disease invented for fun. Just as a group of researchers called the gene responsible for heart disease ‘tafazzina’: a tribute to Tafazzi, a cabaret character. But what prompts a scientist to jeopardize his greatest asset, credibility? “The student spirit has been in the DNA of the universities since the Middle Ages” says Tartamella observing that their jokes “are not only evasion, but also a way to unmask people’s prejudices”. In short, a funny book arrives at the Turin Motor Show but it also makes us reflect, because it tells the story of science from an unusual perspective: the humor of scientists. (by Andreana d’Aquino)