Friday Fun: The scientist’s guide to insulting other scientists

I always thought Wolfgang Pauli's famous remark was the ultimate insult to scientists, but apparently I was wrong. Perhaps I was not even wrong given the plethora of scientific insults you can find out there.

In any case, many "thanks" to the Knoepfler Lab blog for their descriptive, specialized, perhaps overly ambitious but somewhat derivative middle-author list of insults. The moderate length list shows their solid commitment to being good science educators. They seem to be very good scientists to have come up with such a list, but their trainees don't seem as rude and insulting and besides, I've never heard of them insulting anyone at an international meeting. Oh yeah, and I've heard they are all very fine parents and committed to their life partners and caring for their elderly parents.

Without further ado: The scientist’s guide to insulting other scientists: elephant in the lab series

1. Mostly publishes in specialized journals
2. Moderate productivity
3. Attends few international meetings
4. Papers are mostly descriptive
5. Trainees are not attaining academic positions
6. Overly ambitious
7. Mostly middle author publications
8. Outstanding educator
9. Very good scientist
10. Science is derivative and/or incremental

Some of them seem to sound like they are nice things to say about someone, but if you head over to the original post you'll see why they are really insults. The lab, again showing that they might be overly ambitious and very keen on educating the public, have come up with a supplemental list for all of our enjoyment: Insults 2.0: more, even nastier ways scientists skewer & roast each other over the coals.

I wonder what the equivalent list of librarian insults are? "Loves books?"