Sunday, July 19, 2009

Widely Read... Not

Nick was just telling me (after I showed him this comic- which Jorge Cham followed up today) that the journal Nature had about a hundred subsidiary publications. He went and found the list, and the first one my eye fell on was "Kidney International." I immediately burst out laughing.

Now the funny is not in the science itself, it's in the title choices, and the esoteric sound of some of the topics. I'm sure these are rich, fascinating, and vastly important journals and topics to all 3 or 4 people who can make sense out of them. So I'm not disrespectin' science here, I'm just giggling behind its back.

British Dental Journal- Important, but no readers.
Evidence-Based Dentistry- Sister journal to "Faith-Based Dentistry."
History of the journal Nature- History of the History of the Journal Nature expected to debut soon.
The Journal of Investigative Dermatology- Is that a mole, a freckle, a tumor, or a birthmark?
Kidney International- Tips for urbane travel for internal organs.
Mucosal Immunology- You can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but...
Obesity- "I'm fat." "Hey, me too!" "Wow, what a coincidence!" "It's a small world."
Oncogene- Not. A. Clue.
Neuropsychopharmacology- Professor's little helper.

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