The life of the mind.

There is little I enjoy more than the sight of someone completely, entirely nerding it up.

Consider this photograph, for example, from a New York Times article about the high costs of medical devices:

Now, I am sure this researcher is perfectly debonair in his everyday life, but the photographer certainly has captured a moment of pure Pointdexterhood here. You can just hear the nerdy voice of Marvin the Martian about to spring from his lips, can't you?

Even better, though, to my mind, is this fellow here:

He has the wonderfully specific and gloriously nerdsome job of being the curator of the Natural History Museum's egg collection, and you can see that he is just the man for the job. I love him and his zip-up sweater. His only flaw is that he should patently be named Martin.

And then there is this lovely interview with Carol Greider, one of the winners of this year's Nobel Prize in Medicine.

What I found out on Christmas Day 1984, through biochemical evidence, was that telomeres could be lengthened by the enzyme we called telomerase, which keeps the telomeres from wearing down. After I found that out, I went home and put on Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA,” which was just out, and I danced and danced and danced.

I bet you did. Merry Christmas!

Comments

[nataliepo]

I remember reading this article, especially the telomerase-springsteen rockout, thinking "I relate to this woman not because we're both passionate geeks but because we're both regular people, and regular people, by default, are super cliche." The cliche factor increased tenfold when I realized I was born on that exact day of her discovery.

[redfox]

That is because, in addition to being geeks, you are also both dorks. QED.