Science Jokes Index

## Help with article on humor in biological sciences needed

Date: Sun, 8 Aug 1999 17:15:57 -0400
From: witkowski witkowsk@cshl.org
To: Joachim Verhagen jcdverha@xs4all.nl
Subject: Re: help with article

I have written articles on humor in biological sciences for Trends in Biochemical Sciences. What I am looking for now are examples of humor that the author managed to slip into a journal without the editor noticing. Examples include Gamow's attempts to include Mr. Tompkins as a co-author is one example, although he was more successful with his Alpher, Bethe and Gamow paper in Physical Review. One of the few ones in biology I know of is the single amino acid code, W, for tryptophan. It is "W", of course, because tryptophan is pronounced "tWiptophan.

I didn't see such a category at Science Jokes. Do you have any examples, especially in biology?

Jan Witkowski is (among more serious articles) the author of:

- Witkowski, J.A. (1995). How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love Cell. Trends Biochem. Sci. 20: 163-168.
- Witkowski, J.A. (1996). Nothing to Laugh at At All. Trends Biochem. Sci. 21: 156-160.
- Witkowski, J.A. (1997). Deconstructing the Flowing Line: Cartoons in Biochemistry. Trends Biochem. Sci. 22: 142-146.

Science Jokes Index