Scientists.
And don't think "they" ignore it.
Posts by jlb
9 publicly visible posts • joined 28 Aug 2013
'This BLACK HOLE just isn't BLACK AT ALL' snarl boffins
Friday 29th November 2013 00:02 GMT
I'm curious. How many readers here find the term "boffin" demeaning?
Wikipedia's explanation of the term says, "by the 1980s boffins were relegated, in UK popular culture, to semi-comic supporting characters such as Q, the fussy armourer-inventor in the James Bond films, and the term itself gradually took on a slightly negative connotation."
It seems to me that people in the media (particularly at the "Register") use it as a way to get cheap laughs from technically illiterate readers while at the same time disguising their intellectual insecurity.
Most of the essentials of modern life such as automobiles, refrigerators, televisions, the Internet, vaccines, MRIs, CAT scanners, and smartphones are based on the fundamental discoveries of scientists - scientists: the men and women who spend 8 to 12 years in higher education and then often work their entire lives building the vast fund of knowledge from which we all benefit. Don't we owe them more respect than to call them boffins and nerds?
Hyenas FACEBOOK each other with their ARSES: FACT
Tuesday 12th November 2013 18:15 GMT
I would be interested in the reaction of other readers to the term "boffin". To me, as a scientist, it seems demeaning.
Wikipedia says:
"During World War II, boffin was applied with some affection to scientists and engineers working on new military technologies. ... Over time, however, as Britain's high-technology enterprises became less dominant, the mystique of the boffin gradually faded, and by the 1980s boffins were relegated, in UK popular culture, to semi-comic supporting characters such as Q, the fussy armourer-inventor in the James Bond films, and the term itself gradually took on a slightly negative connotation."
I suspect that journalists use such terms to protect their egos when a subject is over their heads and they're fearful of getting it wrong. That may seem like a harmless way to add some humor to a column. But, it diminishes science and its practitioners in the eyes of the public at a time when we need to be taking science-based issues like global warming very seriously.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
