Feedback is 快猫短视频鈥檚 popular sideways look at the latest science and technology news. You can submit items you believe may amuse readers to Feedback by emailing feedback@newscientist.com
Hot! Hot! Hot!
Saturday 17 May will see the final of this year鈥檚 Eurovision Song Contest, which will be the most over-the-top evening of television since, well, the previous Eurovision. Feedback is deeply relieved that Feedback Jr appears not to be interested this year, so we might escape having to sit up and watch the entire thing. While we are deeply supportive of the contest鈥檚 kind and welcoming vibe, most of the songs make our ears bleed.
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Anyway, who needs it when we have the winners of this year鈥檚 ? For readers who may not be familiar, Dance Your PhD encourages researchers to explain their postgraduate research findings through the medium of interpretive dance. It鈥檚 been running since 2008, and Feedback thinks that countries struggling to find suitable entrants for Eurovision should take a look.
This year鈥檚 is by Sulo Roukka at the University of Helsinki in Finland. Roukka studies chemesthesis: the sense, distinct from taste and smell, that detects the heat of chillies and the coolness of menthol. The is set to a walloping song that Feedback didn鈥檛 recognise but would describe as 鈥淟ady Gaga-adjacent鈥� (there are shouts of 鈥淗ot! Hot! Hot!鈥� at key points). It starts with Roukka and his team dancing while seated around a table with lab equipment, before unleashing a cavalcade of costume changes, stunts (at one point Roukka is lifted up, Kylie Minogue-style) and lurid red and green colour schemes to signify the different chemesthetic sensations.
To quote the UK鈥檚 Eurovision entry, what the hell just happened?
Truly, the most shocking thing about the routine is that it isn鈥檛 already on Eurovision. The only possible snag is that the song was 鈥減rompted by Dr Sulo Roukka, Sampo Marjomaa, and AI-Shaman Jami Pietil盲鈥�. If that is a reference to using AI, it might of Eurovision鈥檚 organisers.
If Eurovision isn鈥檛 an option, Dance Your PhD at least ought to get onto TikTok. Science did a sample of Roukka鈥檚 video to its TikTok account, but the contest is otherwise absent 鈥� from the one app that鈥檚 basically famous for the song and dance trends it spawns.
Watts going on?
An email arrives from John Harper at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, alerting us to that rare unicorn: a 鈥渄ouble dose of nominative determinism鈥�. The country鈥檚 minister for energy is one . In this position, Watts naturally spends a lot of his time dealing with the Electricity Retailers鈥� Association of New Zealand, an industry organisation whose independent chair is one .
鈥淭hey both know it needs more than 2 watts to keep our lights on,鈥� points out John.
Imagine if their kids got married.
World鈥檚 top polymath
Feedback likes to think we have a broad range of interests. Science, sure, but also history, music, cinema, books, video games, ASMR videos as long as they don鈥檛 involve chewing noises; it鈥檚 a broad mix of stuff in our brain. Of course, this does mean that Feedback isn鈥檛 really an expert in anything, apart from dragging out a simple point to fill an entire paragraph without regard for concision or readability.
Nevertheless, Bruce Durie has us outclassed. 鈥淚鈥檝e recently discovered that I鈥檓 internationally regarded as quite the polymath,鈥� he writes. This was based on him having been invited, in rapid succession, to speak at conferences on subjects as diverse as chemistry, social studies, education, cell biology, cancer research, and two successive events on arts, humanities, social sciences and education.
To be clear, Bruce is rather an accomplished person: he鈥檚 a genealogist and heraldist who lectures, writes books and presents on BBC Radio. But quite what he would be doing at conferences on chemistry or cancer research is beyond both him and us.
Yet it doesn鈥檛 stop there. His 鈥渆ncyclopaedic eminence鈥� has also led him to be invited to submit papers to a host of journals, which 鈥渁spire to disseminate supreme publications from prominent people like you鈥� and describe him as 鈥渙ne of the leading experts in the field鈥� and 鈥渟imilar hyperbolic emollients鈥�.
Bruce actually listed these journals in full. We thought it might be funny to reproduce his entire list, but when we tried there were so many long words it took up most of a column. (Also, the lawyers said we shouldn鈥檛.) Suffice it to say, they ran the gamut from archaeology and family medicine to infrastructure and posthumanism.
Finally, Bruce has been offered yet another academic accolade: 鈥淚 am 鈥榟ighly invited鈥� to become the editor-in-chief of a new but unnamed journal from the Euro-Asia Academic Alliance. I can even start my own journal 鈥� last month alone, 58 scholars successfully did so, we鈥檙e told.鈥�
Also spare a thought for molecular biologist , at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York state. He was sent a 鈥渞equest to accept for the position of 鈥榚ditorial board鈥� for the journal Advances in Behavioral Neuroscience鈥�. As he on Bluesky: 鈥淐an鈥檛 think of anyone less qualified for this than I am 鈥� except perhaps the people who run the journal鈥︹��
We truly do live in a brave new world, where scientific journals and conferences are promoted in the same way as Nigerian princes and cryptocurrencies.
As Bruce says: 鈥淧redatory publishing is one thing, but aren鈥檛 predators supposed to be stealthy at the very least?鈥�
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