Retrospectacle: A Neuroscience Blog

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall, Who’s the Nerdiest One of All?

Posted by Shelley Batts on September 7, 2006
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A lot of ScienceBloggers in these parts have been getting their panties and manties in a wad over who’s the nerdiest nerd of all. There has been some some excellent hand-flailing-at-the-head-of-the-class-type posturing (myself included).

To recap the nerd highlights:

Tim Lambert (Nerd God like me) of Deltoid assembled all the SciBlogger’s Nerd Scores together.

Janet of Adventures in Science and Ethics gives props to the female geeks among us. Pink pocket-protectors anyone?

Orac of Respectful Insolence insolently suggested that I be disqualified, but I quickly forgave once I observed his ultimate geekdom as evidenced by his collection of Star Trek memorabilia and Dalek cookie jar. And he *is* a friggin’ computer.

Mike Dunford of the Questionable Authority has a few questions which may help you realize if you are truly a nerd.

PZ Myers of Pharyngula submits this photo as visual proof of his geekery. I award extra points for the pocket watch.

Tara of Aetiology proudly asserts that her geekliness (evidenced by this) developed at a young age, and is passing the torch to her own nerds-in-training.

Razib of Gene Expression once mocked someone for a poor pippetting technique. Yes, nerds can be cruel too.

Joshua at Thoughts From Kansas tells a royally nerdy joke. More nerd jokes from Chad at Uncertain Principles, and nerdy valentines are proffered by Nick “Mancrush” Anthis of the Scientific Activist.

Afarensis collects slide rules. ‘Nuff said.

Kevin Vranes of No Se Nada scored a pathetic 45 in the Nerd Test, and really can’t be much of a nerd at all.

Mike of the Questionable Authority recalls a fishtank made out of an old Mac and being the president of the RPG club in high school.

Bora of A Blog Around the Clock weighs in at a flaccid 56 on the Nerd Test, although his admission of his love for turtlenecks does temper that embarrassment a little.

Although, without further ado, Mark Chu-Carrol hands-down wins the nerd-off (in my humble opinion of course). For one, his CURRENT picture trumps PZ’s old one, and he reads programming language books for fun and has 30 tinwhistles which he plays. Come on guys, NO ONE can beat that. Mark, for those about to derive, I salute you!

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  1. #1 afarensis
    September 7, 2006

    Hold the phone! I have about 30 books on computer programming which I have read for no reason other than entertainment. Oh, and I play the bamboo flute…

  2. #2 afarensis
    September 7, 2006

    And I own my own chess clock…

  3. #3 Nick Anthis
    September 7, 2006

    Dude, what gives? All I can say is science valentines.

  4. #4 Shelley Batts
    September 7, 2006

    Oops! Sorry for leaving you out. I must have been too distracted thinking about your lone pair.

  5. #5 Shelley Batts
    September 7, 2006

    But afarensis, can you match MarkCC’s nerd chic? You have no picture (although a old and crusty fossil IS pretty nerdy, as is the chess clock…..).

  6. #6 kevin v
    September 7, 2006

    i forgot to mention ealier (it’s in my post now) that I met my wife in the library of an Ivy. that’s got to count for something

  7. #7 Nick Anthis
    September 7, 2006

    OK. Excused. ;-)

  9. #9 Tara C. Smith
    September 7, 2006

    Hmm, thought it automatically added the code. Try here. Complete with picture, I might add.

  10. #10 Shelley Batts
    September 7, 2006

    Tara and Nick, added!

  11. #11 coturnix
    September 7, 2006

    I am so not nerd – more of a farmer-type – but I am nerdy enough to want to be listed here! Here!

  12. #12 Phillip Alvelda
    September 8, 2006

    Okay gang,

    I’m not sure what it really takes to join this club, and it’s true, I’m new to the science blog world.

    But I have SERIOUS Nerd Pride, a pocket protector to prove it, and maybe a little street-cred. Remember that Dilbert Carton that went something like:

    “In the old days, I wrote an entire database program using just zeros and ones!”

    Wally: “You were lucky you had ones. We had to use the letter O.”

    Well, you can see my equivalent here: High School Computer Science: Then and Now

    I discuss one of my favorite toys, a mechanical computer here: The Toy That Got Me Started in Computing

    and yes, you can see here(Like I Really Needed a Test For Affirmation)that I scored a 99th percentile on the test, though I didn’t think it was a very good test.

    I could certainly go on to list things like my extended Ivy and technical education, RPG game playing and design history, or about having actually built things that have orbited the earth and crashed into two other planets. But instead of backing-up the coments here, you could just read my blog(All The Best Bits)! (Shameless wasn’t it?)

    Seriously though, I’ve really enjoyed reading most of your blogs in trying to sort out the whole process for what started as an effort to help a couple of schools in science need. I’d really appreciate any tips or suggestions this august panel might supply!

    cheers,
    -Phillip

  13. #13 The Cheerful Oncologist
    September 8, 2006

    Hey Shelley – did you check my score? Gloria in excelsis Deo, I ain’t a nerd – at least when compared to my SciBlings!

  14. #14 A Babe in the Universe
    September 8, 2006

    Have you forgotten what anniverary September 8 is? I haven’t.

  15. #15 Shelley Batts
    September 8, 2006

    Obvioulsy you didn’t see the post that came right after this one today? *Did* I remember. Sheesh!

  16. #16 coturnix
    September 9, 2006

    I am not really happy with the word “flaccid” in the same sentence with my name. After all, I grew up playing with my Erector set.

  17. #17 Andres
    September 9, 2006

    Hum. I was also quite impressed by Mark CC’s nerdiness, but on second thoughts, perhaps the results should be somehow normalized. You know, it’s like comparing impact factors of papers: anything in biology beats anything in physics, physics beats math, math beats computer science, so in order to compare you need some normalizing factor. Of course this would require some discussion about how nerd an average philosopher, biologist or computer scientist can be expected to be, but I have a hunch that John Wilkins’s 93 would get higher than Mark’s 99!

  18. #18 Alon Levy
    September 9, 2006

    You guys don’t invent entire languages just because it’s sometimes easier to think in them than in English.

    Ius dunt envaent hul leinguizhs zhaust coz tei saumtaims mior fes tu thenc en ils dhaen en Mad’rn English.

  19. #19 Rev. Dr. Incitatus
    September 11, 2006

    Pah… Charlatans the lorra ya. Far too much popular science discussed on these scienceblogs pages to qualify the bloggers as geuine, dyed-in-the-wool nerds.

    And this blog is surely the least nerdiest of the lot. I mean really, what were the judges thinking? This blogger is about as nerdy as Susan Greenfield. And parrots are far too trendy to be associated with the throne of geekdom. A pet paramecium would be more appropriate…

    An example of a real science nerd blogger