Humor AND the Lab
No, the Lab is not funny. It is usually very serious. So, how do you create interest in this important work (unless you recently won the Nobel Prize)?
If you are a scientist you have experienced the infamous “glazed eye look” in a social gathering when you introduce yourself as a scientist. Others seem to immediately loose interest. There are several reasons for this:
Some scientists bore the daylights out of non-scientists because they drone on forever about topics of minimal interest to others.
Some scientists can’t talk, or they talk to their shoes. (A tax accountant once described it this way: You can tell an extroverted accountant because they don’t talk to their shoes, they talk to your shoes.)
As a generality, the public has a fear of science, perhaps because they find it difficult to understand. That fear became enfranchised into the concept of the “mad scientist”, perhaps because the public seems incapable of explaining it any other way; science is complex, therefore it must be weird. One television series promoting “mad science”, Big Bang Theory, stars Mayim Bialik. I gag on the utter foolishness depicted by this series, denegrating science at every laugh. Bialik is an educated person who claims to be trained in neuroscience, she is clearly very bright, and clearly a strong communicator. I point this out because it is clear that Hollywood finds science a topic where denigration is allowed. It is difficult for me to understand how she can denigrate the very subject she claims to be hers. Somewhere along the line Hollywood forgot that their entire wellbeing is dependent upon good science.
Some entertainers have developed disparagement as a tool to create humor. As an example, at last years Academy Award, Chris Rock disparaged Jada Pinket Smith for showing signs of the disease alopecia. Will Smith, Jada’s husband, reacted strongly, slapping Rock publicly. The public reacted by holding Smith accountable for his action rather than holding Rock accountable for his reprehensible behavior.
So, it is clear that the public finds certain actions involving denigration taboo; if it is race-related, if it is violence-rated, that is taboo. However, if it is science-related, denigration is allowed. It is hard to fight against that trend expressed so frequently in the “glazed eye look”.
How do you get past the “glazed eye look” ? The answer, silly, is humor. Make them laugh and they will continue to listen…but never denigrate!
Throughout my professional career I functioned as a teacher. I taught in Mayo Medical School for 20 years and was ranked as “one of the best” (not THE best, but well regarded) each year by the 2nd year medical students. I also taught in the Mayo Graduate School, and mentored fellows (post MD or PhD in the subspecialty phase of their education) in Mayo Graduate School of Medicine over the course of 40 years. Based on student reviews, I was consistently good at teaching.
I like to include humor as a teaching tool in all of my activities. Why? Because if I can capture your attention through humor, I can impact your learning experience, and more important, I will likely learn something from you. In my opinion, every activity in my day is an opportunity to learn something new. Isn’t life BORING if you don’t learn something new, express something new, influence somebody with something new, multiple times each day?
In this blog on “THE LAB”, I will introduce humor as a tool to keep your attention on the topic, for if I cannot keep your attention, this could get BORING real fast. However if I can keep your attention, you might become interested in “The Magical World of THE LAB”.
