Long jumper for Snohomish. Creative Commons licensed picture by by Philo Nordlund on Flickr
If Science were an Olympic sport, which events would scientists excel at?
During the Beijing Olympics in 2008, I wondered what Olympic activities scientists would be good at, with a list of events. This satirical post was kindly re-published [1] by the learned American Physical Society (thanks guys!) in their newsletter, though some of the proposed events look a little dated now.
Doesn’t time fly? Here we are four years later and London 2012 is already upon us. The Boris Johnson Olympic Stadium is finally complete. Oscar winner Danny Boyle has the eagerly anticipated opening ceremony all planned out. Sculptor Anish Kapoor’s spectacular Orbit Olympic observation tower looks out over the Olympic Park. Teams of athletes from all over the world have gathered in the capital to see how years of training will pay off.
Meanwhile Team Science [2] also play their part in supporting the Olympics, through sports science, drug testing and other services. Some are sparring for their bouts of impact factor boxing but may need a soothing ego massage afterwards to recover from the particularly painful peer-reviewed punches. Others are limbering up for the long jump to conclusions an event at which some scientists (and many policitians) are strong medal contenders. There are lots of other events proposed for the future too, some of them quite controversial [3,4,5], they might need genetically enhanced security guards, with superhuman abilities (sponsored by G4S)?
Readers of this blog will probably have much better ideas than the rather ropey suggestions I cobbled together. If that’s you, please post them below in the comments section or tweet them with the hashtag #OlympicScience.
Scientists and athletes have much in common, many are naturally obsessed [6] with their eyes firmly fixed on the prize and will often bend the rules to win Gold [7]. So wherever you are, whichever prizes you admire, enjoy the superb sporting spectacle that is the London 2012 Summer Olympics.
References
- Yours Truly (2008). If Science Were an Olympic Sport Zero Gravity: The Lighter Side of Science, American Physical Society (APS) Physics
- Daniel Cressey & Ewen Callaway (2012). Science at the Olympics: Team Science, Nature, 487 (7407) 292. DOI: 10.1038/487290a
- Helen Thompson (2012). Performance enhancement: Superhuman athletes, Nature, 487 (7407) 289. DOI: 10.1038/487287a
- Timothy Noakes & Michael Spedding (2012). Olympics: Run for your life, Nature, 487 (7407) 296. DOI: 10.1038/487295a
- Juan Enriquez & Steve Gullans (2012). Olympics: Genetically enhanced Olympics are coming, Nature, 487 (7407) 297. DOI: 10.1038/487297a
- Mariano Loza-Coll (2012). Piled too high, Nature, 486 (7403) 431. DOI: 10.1038/nj7403-431a
- Michael Brooks (2011). Free Radicals: The Secret Anarchy of Science ISBN:1846684056
Update: The real games started on a scientific and technical note with help from Tim Berners-Lee
This is for everyone #london2012 #oneweb #openingceremony @webfoundation @w3c—
Tim Berners-Lee (@timberners_lee) July 27, 2012
#OlympicScience didn’t really take off, but #Nerdlympics (Olympics for Nerds) did much better – a selection below.
The good news is, I've finally created my first successful hashtag. The bad news is, it's #Nerdlympics—
Alex Wild (@Myrmecos) July 28, 2012
Insane thread on #Nerdlympics puns, like Eye Pseudonames – @dullhunk where are you? – oh, here duncan.hull.name/2012/07/27/oly…—
Douglas Kell (@dbkell) July 29, 2012
<table>Tennis</table> RT @Myrmecos:
Periodic table tennis #Nerdlympics—
Tarek Amr (@gr33ndata) July 28, 2012
400m Individual Mendeley #Nerdlympics—
Michele Banks (@artologica) July 28, 2012
#Nerdlympics Rchery. (A bit too similar to PCRchery but that doesn't stop the real Olympics!)—
Richard Edwards (@cabbagesofdoom) July 28, 2012
#Nerdlympics 500m random walk—
skullsinthestars (@drskyskull) July 28, 2012
Krebs cycling #Nerdlympics—
Radium Yttrium (@DrRubidium) July 28, 2012
@toddbarry #Nerdlympics Social Hurdles—
Matt La Farr (@MattTheKing) July 28, 2012
Floppy Discus Throw #Nerdlympics—
Jamie Beach (@JamieBeach) July 28, 2012
Sebastian Coenzyme #Nerdlympics—
Neil Swainston (@neilswainston) July 28, 2012
Centriluge #Nerdlympics (Winter)—
David Aldridge (@D_Aldridge) July 30, 2012
#Nerdlympics Hardy-Weinberg balancing beam (requires good equilibrium)—
Bora Zivkovic (@BoraZ) July 28, 2012
Massively parallel bars #Nerdlympics—
Dan Gezelter (@gezelter) July 29, 2012
Dipole vault. Or the even more electrifying, pole volt. #Nerdlympics—
Richard Edwards (@cabbagesofdoom) July 29, 2012
Beach Buckyball #nerdlympics—
fernanda castano (@ferwen) July 29, 2012
Mathletics? That has to be a event at the #Nerdlympics mathletics.co.uk—
Duncan Hull (@dullhunk) July 29, 2012
#nerdlympics 100 micron freestyle swimming (and more) nature.com/nrmicro/journa…—
Nature Rev Microbiol (@NatureRevMicro) July 28, 2012
#Nerdlympics Time Dilation Trials—
Random Excess (@RandomExcess) July 28, 2012
