Humiliation through scientific knowledge

[Royston]

So has anyone been in a situation, where you've put someone in their place, and hopefully prevented them spouting nonsense in the future ?

 

Sorry, I just read this, and realized how daft it sounds, when there's a pseudoscience and speculations forum on here...'yes...on a daily basis yer fool.'

 

Of course, what I meant, was outside of these wonderful forums.

Edited March 27, 2009 by Snail

[iNow]

She must not have been that cute.

[Royston]

She must not have been that cute.

 

She was....errr, no, I didn't find her particularly attractive. Oh, how fickle and shallow I am.

[iNow]

She was....errr, no, I didn't find her particularly attractive. Oh, how fickle and shallow I am.

 

Nah... It would be shallow if she WERE cute and you just went with it. "Yeah, I TOTALLY agree... It's like Chakras and magnetic flux and the laws of thermodynamics and stuff. You are SO totally right. Listen, let's continue this conversation back at my place... I've got some interesting ideas about coefficients of friction I want to explore with you."

 

 

Now that would be shallow and fickle, but fun all the same.

 

 

 

I correct people on stupid stuff all of the time, but for some reason they always manage not to learn from it and keep coming back for more.

[Royston]

Oh dear, this thread makes no sense at all now, see OP.

 

So, I'm going to type out that entire scenario again, and restate the question, and this time, not reprehensibly edit over the original example....<sigh>, so again...

 

Having a fair amount of scientific knowledge has it's pros and cons. Not respectively, but for instance I used to love watching Horizon when I was younger. But, now I've gained a certain level of understanding of the subject, Horizon has become 'spot the flaw in the experiment show', and has made it impossible to sit back, relax, and enjoy.

 

However, the upshot is that you can catch people out, if they feel inclined to show off down the pub for example. So here's what happened on a recent night out...

 

A couple of mates and I, were sitting in the back of a club, chatting (sorry shouting) over a pint, when we were approached by a girl...

 

Girl: Having a good night ?

Us: Yeah, you ? (not in unison)

Girl: Yeah, I have a Phd in energy

 

So I just presumed she was drunk, gave her the benefit of the doubt...perhaps her area was in high energy physics.

 

Me: Phd in....energy ?

Girl: Yeah, energy transfer

Me: I'm not sure I'm familiar with that field.

Girl:(who starts making wavy, mysterious hand gestures) ya know, like the pure energy that connects everything, including us.

 

It was just waffle that I heard, but it was certainly along those lines...

 

Me: Errr, ok

Girl: Yeah, amazing isn't it, Einsteins theory of evolution !

Me: (who's face has just dropped, beyond a safe dropping distance) you mean, Einstein's theory of relativity ?

Girl: errrr...ummm, sorry

 

So I started explaining the basics of SR, the invariance of C, and reference frames et.c however she was edging away. Later on in the night, if I stepped into another room in the club, and she saw me, she would run away. (it's not funny now I've typed it a second time.)

 

So has anyone else (outside of the forums) been in a similar situation to cause humiliation, i.e when somebody claims this, that or the other, and you rip them a new excrement passage.

 

Also, as I stated I'm really not trying to be egotistical here...it can happen with any field of knowledge, but it would be interesting to hear similar stories.

[jimmydasaint]

I used to ask complicated questions at Seminars during my PhD and couple of post-docs. However, the humiliation was on me - I was doing it to satisfy my ego and to show how clever I thought I was. In my teaching, I am humbled by the amazing complication of the few pounds of grey matter we have in our skulls.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

In a chemistry class last year:

 

Dude behind me: "Evolution violates the second law of thermodynamics."

Me: "The second law of thermodynamics applies to closed systems. The earth is not a closed system." (In exactly that sort of terse wording.)

 

It wouldn't count were it not for the fact that the entire class immediately reacted like I had dished out a very nice insult. I think it was how quickly I said it that did it.

[jimmydasaint]

In a Seminar, a young and pretty female scientist answers a question from a member of the audience: "I think you are wrong there, J____ et al mentioned that there was very little lectin activity in their paper..."

 

Answer from the member of the audience: "No, I think you are wrong - I am J_____ ...".

 

At this point the audience collapses in helpless laughter (I managed to hold in my laughter).

[Kaeroll]

In a chemistry class last year:

 

Dude behind me: "Evolution violates the second law of thermodynamics."

Me: "The second law of thermodynamics applies to closed systems. The earth is not a closed system." (In exactly that sort of terse wording.)

 

It wouldn't count were it not for the fact that the entire class immediately reacted like I had dished out a very nice insult. I think it was how quickly I said it that did it.

I pray every day for a moment like that to come along...