Comments on: T-shirt tribute to the time-honored combination of booze and science

By: Dr. Free-Ride

Dr. Free-Ride — Wed, 16 May 2012 21:23:00 +0000

My own field studies suggest that alcoholism researchers are the hardest drinking scientists around.

By: Pliny_the_Elder

Pliny_the_Elder — Wed, 16 May 2012 01:38:00 +0000

So the carbon with the extra cup is C13, right guys? Guys?

By: pjcamp

pjcamp — Wed, 16 May 2012 01:24:00 +0000

“We can argue for days over which field of science is the booziest”

Physics. Especially relativity.

I went to an International GRG meeting in Boulder when I was a graduate student. One afternoon, we were bused up into the Rockies to a municipal ski resort. Kind of an odd idea to begin with since it was the middle of July, and the amateur faculty Renaissance band made it double odd.

But they had laid in 30 kegs of beer in preparation for us, and they were completely drained in two hours.

That was a long, dry afternoon.

Beer and coffee are the two essential fluids of physics. Sort of like having two pedals in your car. One to make your brain go, and one to make it stop going when you’re done with it.

By: penguinchris

penguinchris — Tue, 15 May 2012 21:11:00 +0000

Heh, yes, I didn’t mean that as a literal interpretation of the shirt (and as a non-chemist or biologist I didn’t even look for the chemistry joke). I meant just that the existence of t-shirts like this illustrates that there’s a lot of alcohol in academia.

I did get a little hyperbolic; while I do know recovered alcoholic geologists I don’t think drinking academics are a major problem :)

By: Jonathan Badger

Jonathan Badger — Tue, 15 May 2012 21:06:00 +0000

Nah, the shirt implies that two of the five hydrogen atoms in ethanol can’t hold their (recursive) alcohol. The carbon and oxygen seem to be quite happy, as are the other three hydrogen atoms. Not sure what academia has to do with it.

(I’m a microbiologist and beer tends to be our drink, but then many of us are homebrewers)

By: Cyanocitta

Cyanocitta — Tue, 15 May 2012 20:03:00 +0000

The answer is clearly herpetologists and ichthyologists. Those suckers are crazy. (I’m an ornithologist.)

By: penguinchris

penguinchris — Tue, 15 May 2012 18:41:00 +0000

This is persistently thought of as true by geologists (of which I am one), but in the US* it’s strangely limited to beer. Geologists are caught up in the idea of geologists drinking a lot of beer. Of course, we also maybe consider ourselves more serious and mature than the chemistry and biology grad students who still party like it’s freshman year :)

I made martinis with a group of geology grad students in a remote location once and no one was interested! They all had beer.

* the first time I got really, really drunk was in a remote jungle in Thailand with a Thai professor and grad student. We drank dirt-cheap Thai whiskey, and a lot of it. Then we woke up early the next day to go out into the field.

I think actually that drives the excessive drinking – you have to wake up early and do difficult physical stuff, so you have to build up a tolerance :)

All that said, I know several geologists who had major problems with alcoholism (the ones I know directly are now sober – I’ve heard of several others who ruined their lives). But, I don’t think that’s limited to geologists. As the shirt implies, alcohol is a problem in academia well beyond undergrad.

By: rob_cornelius

rob_cornelius — Tue, 15 May 2012 17:09:00 +0000

The best way in the world to start a fight is to get a bunch of British archaeologists in a pub (not a hard thing to do) and wait for them to get a few beers inside of them (not a long wait) then say in a cheerful voice “So what do you all think about that Time Team show on the TV”

I have no opinion on the T shirt

By: Maggie Koerth-Baker

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Tue, 15 May 2012 14:54:00 +0000

I think the theme is: People who spend a great deal of time out in remote field locations.

By: Guest

Guest — Tue, 15 May 2012 14:39:00 +0000

That is a great shirt, but nobody drinks like a geologist.