One of my favourite internet reads is the Improbable Research website, which is run by the people who award the prestigious IgNobel prizes. The aim of Improbable Research is to have a gentle dig at the wilder shores of scientific research but it is certainly not anti-science. The intention is to make people laugh and then think.
A recent post celebrated a paper on Gluinos (a hypothetical particle – Do’t ask me to explain because it is way beyond my ken) . Quite astonishingly (to me anyway) the paper has 2100 co-authors. Now that is impressive!
I had thought of publishing the whole list of contributors but that would create a post that would go on and on and on. Let me present you this link to see for yourself
From V Khachatrayan to M Weinberg, the Poor Mouth salutes you even if he ha no idea whatsoever what the research is about!
Improbable research states that another paper has even more co authors, a massive 2500!
6 comments:
Goes a long way to prove the power of collective thought.
And the more the merrier too!
"even if he ha no idea..."
I love it when you go "he ha" in the middle of your sentences. You do like a chuckle don't you?
It's better than a Tourette like expletive!
For a couple of years I worked for a neurosurgeon who always had a number of research programs underway. It wasn't unusual that anyone who had contributed to the effort of sending out the multiple large boxes of documents required for grant proposals all got listed as authors - including the typists. There was only ever one PI (principal investigator).
Wow that sounds like one of those acceptance speeches where the winner thanks the whole world!
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