…and this is a 
It's official, don't question it
Category: Humor
Posted on: September 17, 2006 10:03 AM, by PZ Myers
Rocket science isn't my bag, but I have done brain surgery (on animals, not people), and I've done a lot of single cell neuro work, so I have to agree with this report that assesses the relative merits of the two disciplines:
"It does require a superior intellect to function as a rocket scientist," the article concedes. "Having said that, though, rocket science is not brain surgery."
The real clincher in the article, the one that demonstrates the perspicacity of this research, is this final assessment by a University of Minnesota expert:
"The fact of the matter is, the smartest people in the world have always been, and will always be, University of Minnesota experts," he said.
Don't argue with me, my authority is now unassailable.
(via James T. Downey)
Comments
Law is the thinking man's game. The rest of y'all are mere technicians.
Posted by: Adam | September 17, 2006 10:41 AM
Well, rockets are much more engineering. Not easy, bot they're reasonably quantifiable. Even when they tend to blow up 'til you get them right ("sorry, guys I forgot a number there..."). But playing with nuerons (or big chunks of 'em") and not bolloxing up the whole works is an art.
Posted by: 7feet | September 17, 2006 10:43 AM
Mark Psiaki, faculty advisor to the IDEA Club at Cornell, is a "rocket scientist."
QED.
Posted by: ivy privy | September 17, 2006 10:51 AM
Well, in my mind I'm the smartest there is. 'Cause I'm not schizophrenic...
Posted by: Torbjörn Larsson | September 17, 2006 11:06 AM
According to John Carmack (who is building a rocket) - "Aerospace is plumbing with the volume turned up".
Posted by: Jeremy Henty | September 17, 2006 12:42 PM
Isn't Rusty Yates (Andrea's husband) a rocket scientist? It's such a shame that with all those smarts, he didn't have the common sense to go out and get a vasectomy after his wife's psychiatarist told him that having more kids would be really, really bad.
Posted by: phinky | September 17, 2006 3:16 PM
"Having said that, though, rocket science is not brain surgery."
Reminds me of someone describing neurosurgeons' irritation that the heart surgeons get all the press 'For god's sake, it's just a pump!'
Posted by: Mike | September 17, 2006 3:28 PM
The good thing about being an engineer is that your machines don't care about who you are, what you believe, or whether you have a clean house or a good personality; they just work the way they work, inevitably, according to the laws of physics and chemistry... the bad thing about being an engineer is that you machines don't care about who you are, etc....
Posted by: speedwell | September 17, 2006 4:02 PM
Saw a t-shirt yesterday that said :"Hey, it's not rocket surgery!"
Posted by: Buffalo Gal | September 17, 2006 6:02 PM
A brain surgeon of my acquaintance once said that there's more room for error than most people think, at least some of the time. Mind, in my work I get to see the folks who had the bad luck. I've tested surgeons and rocket scientists; both groups were sharp. However, the ones who do really well on cognitve tests are neuropsychologists (and their assistants, who do even better on the tests). I guarantee, there's no confound there, either.
Posted by: stewart | September 17, 2006 7:04 PM
Mark Psiaki, faculty advisor to the IDEA Club at Cornell, is a "rocket scientist."
Lol, over at the IDEA Club page they quote Darwin as saying: "A fair result can only be obtained by balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of the equation", so I take that to mean that they will be discussing how Behe, oh, misrepresented the peer review of his book, hardy har har.
Posted by: lonely386sx15 | September 17, 2006 7:27 PM
A guy in Oregon had a barbed hunting arrow shot into his brain through his eye socket. It couldn't be pulled out because of the barbs, so they cut a hole in the back of his skull and pushed it out.
The brain surgeon was heard to say, "Whatever brain function he ever had is intact". The man had been at a drinking bout, and his friend wanted to play "William Tell". "I feel sort of stupid", he said.
So yeah, there's a lot of MOE.
Posted by: John Emerson | September 17, 2006 8:57 PM
Posted by: ekzept | September 17, 2006 11:31 PM
Ekzept... :)
yeah, come to think of it I'd better get back to work arranging product data for the engineers I work for so the great impartial high priests who manage them will intercede for me at the Apocalypse of my next performance review. ;)
Posted by: speedwell | September 18, 2006 8:23 AM
An ex-girlfriend has a degree (B.A.) in Psychology. One of her (and mine) favourite facts to come out of her classes was that the professional group that consistently scores highest on IQ tests is... Psychologists (who, it turns out, design and write the IQ tests).
Having said that, I think it's important to clarify that IQ is a measure of one's suitability for further formal education, not a broad measure of intelligence or reasoning ability.
Long ago, I overheard a man describe a somewhat mentally-challenged aquaintance as a "real rocket surgeon". It's been stuck in my mind ever since, like a mis-aimed roman candle.
Posted by: TheBrummell | September 18, 2006 2:02 PM
"Rocket surgery" has long been one of my favourite phrases.
Posted by: BMurray | September 18, 2006 2:58 PM
My husband is a genuine rocket scientist. (He even has a t-shirt that says so.) He says rocket scientists use brain surgery for that construction. i.e. it's simple, not brain surgery. I'm sorry, I can't tell you what brain surgeons use.
MKK
Posted by: Mary Kay | September 18, 2006 9:06 PM
"Well, in my mind I'm the smartest there is. 'Cause I'm not schizophrenic..."
Hmppf! If I'm to become smart enough for me, I should know that I meant dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality disorder).
Posted by: Torbjörn Larsson | September 19, 2006 12:06 AM