Just saw a piece I wrote got published in the Canadian magazine, The Walrus. What's especially cool about this one, is that it has been presented in comic form, which is first for me. This is another great example of just sticking to your guns when trying to publish a piece. I must have written a first edit of this piece way back in early 2005, and had submitted to the odd place here and there.
Originally, it was a text piece, entitled "Short Illustrious Collaborations of Research Career" detailing some real encounters (many very brief) with notable folks in the scientific research or scientific communication world. For me, that was the humour - in that even though, like many other science types, I've been lucky enough to meet some pretty incredible people, many of them have been in the briefest of contexts.
The art is wonderful (provided by the talented Christopher Hutsul), although it does throw off the "truthiness" context of some of the dialogue. Here are the real settings where each of the dialogues occurred:
David Suzuki: This happened just outside a huge concert hall, where David was set to speak (I was one of the organizers).
Stephen Lewis: Actually, a dialogue in an office we had prepared for him, while he was resting between a Q&A and a large audience talk. I was just making arrangements so that he could get lunch.
Francis Crick: This actually happened outside in the Salk Institute parking lot. I was a wee graduate student in this case. Dr. Crick drove a slick looking white Mercedes with the licence plate "ATCG."
Al Gore: In a foyer, right after a talk he gave at UBC - had a chance to chat with him very very briefly. I can't believe I said "I figured."
Kary Mullis: Another grad student encounter. Here, the "spread" was actually referring to the food laid out at a wine and cheese for a talk I attended.
John Sulston: I love this one - this happened in my office, where I do have an Ikea couch. We chatted a while on his effort to make scientific data more open access.
Sidney Brenner: Another encounter that happened when I was a graduate student.
There were actually a few others in my original submission (Carl Wieman, Francis Collins, etc). All of this, of course, was inspired by Michael Smith, my former boss. The panel in the middle actually occurred in my office, after I had just been hired in my current position. He died a few short months later, so I suspect he was vary of this, and wanted to chat about the responsibilities of scientists going out of their way to communicate to the public. This is one of my career defining moments - he was truly a great guy.
Anyway, with this comic strip, and this previous application to the Superfriends, does this mean I get to be in a movie now?
I bet a lot of readers have had similar brief encounters in their own academic careers - would love to hear about some of them in the comment section. Actually, for a while, there was idea to make this a recurring type of piece at the SCQ. If you want, you can also let me know what you think about that idea.
Comments
With Jim Watson, Co-Discoverer of the DNA Double Helix, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1962.
At the Human Genome Project gala celebrating the Science publication of the human genome sequence.
TR: It's an honor to meet you.
JW: Take advantage of your position as a young scientist.
TR: What do you mean?
JW: There are a lot more women in science these days.
TR: I suppose that's true.
Come on: "I suppose that's true??!!!"
Posted by: Thomas Robey | August 22, 2007 1:35 PM
I love this, what a great idea. It made me chuckle.
Posted by: Jacqui Monaghan | August 22, 2007 2:30 PM
TR, I heard James Watson was like that...
Posted by: Katherine Sharpe | August 22, 2007 3:41 PM
I used Phil Sharp's kayak last summer. I took care not to scratch its bottom, as per his request. It was fun.
Posted by: Timon | August 22, 2007 7:09 PM
Oh yes. Four-and-a-half years in the same institute as Stephen Hawking and my most profound interaction with him was disentangling his wheelchair from a chair in the coffee room. Sigh.
Posted by: csrster | August 23, 2007 5:55 AM
I just think the drawings are funny.
Posted by: Gabriel | August 25, 2007 2:15 AM