"The findings confirm research that I conducted more than 20 years ago. Under the guise of the Comedy Research Project, Timandra Harkness and I performed a randomised clinical trial to assess whether or not science can be funny."
"We found that, in both conditions, laughter levels failed to reach statistical significance. At the time, our unpublished, peerless-reviewed data was a blow, because it followed arguably the finest period for pairing science and comedy."
"In the 1980s and 90s, emerging technology paved the way for the discovery of many new genes. Scientists were given free rein to name them and, for a short while at least, some dropped their guard."
A study surveyed humor use in 531 scientific talks, revealing scientists average 1.6 jokes per presentation, with 66% resulting in polite chuckles. Previous research indicated that humor in science fails to generate significant laughter. A randomized clinical trial showed no statistical significance in laughter levels between talks with and without jokes. The 1980s and 90s saw a brief period of humor in science with creative gene names, but overall, humor remains rare in scientific communication.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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