posted by
maelorin at 10:29pm on 19/04/2004
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny...'
-- Isaac Asimov
actually, issac, it's often 'oh shit', or 'what the **$%# was that?' ...
and sometimes it's 'wanna bet?' ...
issac's just being polite...
(in the southern us, i believe the phrase is 'hey ya'll watch this...' which also often proceeds a trip to the hospital or the morgue.)
Re: issac's just being polite...
i've done that ... even said the very same thing beforehand.
people are great. it's the rest of us you have to watch out for ;)
i'm pretty sure you're right about issac being polite. he knew too many of use lab monkeys not to know ... and he knew his audience.
the biggest break i've been involved in began with 'oh fuck' and led to half the building being quarantined for six weeks. two years later my fuck-up led to a multi-million dollar patent. [any guesses as to who is not included in that deal ... grr. intellectual wankery law ...]
(in contrast, the guy in the next lab (who got a 'first') put his hand through his glassware and had six weeks off while the stitches did their work. this led him to realise he was putting his gear together wrong ... and accelerated his project by three months.)
Re: issac's just being polite...
[just ignore the blathering at the end of the last comment.]