Today I happened upon a Dr Mark Kermode prosing entertainingly about cinematic entertainment on the BBC Radio 5 Live Simon Mayo programme.
A most entertaining segment, as an early metazoan said with a whoop when it found another’s gonopore.
Dr Kermode usually broadcasts after 3pm on a Friday, but owing to a game of golf (there are contradictory stories as to the origins of this strange game, I am inclined to believe the version in The Hobbit) he appeared this Tuesday afternoon.
Conversation turned to a film in which scientists were responsible for the production of a Grotesque Thing which tries to End The World Or Something. Dr Kermode says that it is an invariable rule of celluloid science laboratories that they are in financial crisis, hence the Desperate Measures which result in the Grotesque Thing which tries to End The World Or Something.
I realise that I risk straying onto sci-art territory ably and eruditely occupied by another here, and would not wish to tread on such toes, but Grotesque Thing Production notwithstanding, are labs routinely in financial crisis?
Mr Darwin feels an article coming on, something no mere damp flannel will supress! Should you have tales of shocking or even mildly alarming underfunding, have you ever felt the urge to point an ill-wired gamma ray gun at a mild mannered scientists’ forehead to overcome your lab budget crisis, email them to chazdarwin (at) googlemail.com. Confidentiality will be scrupulously respected.
I think this must be more common than you imagine, judging by the report in this week’s Nature of a meeting to sort out some small budget problems (£80 million):
Last week, an official opened a meeting between scientists and the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) by asking that those present leave their weapons at the front desk.