Alright, dear readers, I have a question for you.
First, the set-up: I am considering the suit of a Romanian physicist. He has "been going some side work on X-Ray spectroscopy" and is now doing post-doc work with a "Plasma Physics" group, "nuclear fusion research mainly." Of course, I promptly emailed Dr. Y to be my Cyrano de Dork-erac, and she pointed out that since the physicist is doing his post-doc work at the same university at which he earned his doc, he might not be the brightest astronomer in Nerd-dom.
So, here's my question:
How dumb can a physicist be?
Also, I would like to hear your opinions about Romanians. This is not racist since Romania is a multi-ethnic country.
First, the set-up: I am considering the suit of a Romanian physicist. He has "been going some side work on X-Ray spectroscopy" and is now doing post-doc work with a "Plasma Physics" group, "nuclear fusion research mainly." Of course, I promptly emailed Dr. Y to be my Cyrano de Dork-erac, and she pointed out that since the physicist is doing his post-doc work at the same university at which he earned his doc, he might not be the brightest astronomer in Nerd-dom.
So, here's my question:
How dumb can a physicist be?
Also, I would like to hear your opinions about Romanians. This is not racist since Romania is a multi-ethnic country.
posted by Jean Luc Petard at
7:13 PM
7 Comments:
I also have to agree with Dr Y. A physicist who does their postdoctoral work at their Ph.D institute may not be the brightest bulb... however, consider what he is studying: nuclear fusion (mainly). Tis not really at the forefront of what is considered 'popular' science.
In his defense though- he may have a big fat grant which he cannot afford to leave behind! And really, how many fusion research facilities are there? I guess his choices are limited.
As far as how dumb physicists can be, let me share this tale:
I went to a talk last week, given by an up-and-coming young female postdoc at the MIT Kavli Center for Space Research. You'd think that the physicists here might have a bit more going on in between their ears. Alas, the poor soul giving the talk started talking about all her holes. She had holes in the front, and holes in the back... and all her holes were plugged. I can't have been the only dirtyminded person in the audience who snickered at her incredibly poor choice of words.
(though her choice of words was oh-so-poor, given the way she combined her data, she did in fact have holes (seen as rings of optical emissions) that were plugged (by clumps of infrared emission).)
The moral is, of course, that you can have dumb physicists AND intelligent phyicists who only appear dumb because they're never let out of the lab.
As far as Romanians go... they're a slippery bunch and I'd run far far away :)
-Dr C
By
Dr Chompers, Ph.D, at 8:38 PM
While I cannot speak to the intelligence of physicists, because if I do, I'll likely upset Dr. Y, I would throw in my two cents about Romania and the general Balkans area.
Of the few that I have met, every person from that area was way too intense for me. "But, c1150" you say, "you have the word angry in your domain name. How can they be too intense for you?" I don't know, they just are, except for the nice young folk singer, but I forget where exactly she was from, she might have been Lithuanian and thus not from the area at all.
Ah, that was less than helpful.
By
c1150, at 12:24 AM
This thread is useless without pics of said Romanian :)
By
Dr Chompers, Ph.D, at 9:54 AM
Oh it would be too cruel to post his pictures, at least not until he does me wrong. Let's just say he's not the "dumb, but hot physicist" but he ain't the "toad hideous, but brilliant physicist" either. Swarthy and ruggedly handsome I'd say, if pressured.
By
Jean Luc Petard, at 7:17 PM
Swarthy???
Is he a pirate-physicist? :)
By
Dr Chompers, Ph.D, at 8:01 PM
What's a pirate-physicist's favorite laser?
By
Dr Yakalumpf, PhD, at 4:09 AM
Why that would be the Arrrrrgon laser.
By
Jean Luc Petard, at 5:16 AM
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