So, there’s this cycle chic movement, which seems to be about hipsters taking ownership of the roads away from M.A.M.I.L.s (middle-aged men in lycra – I got that from someone at work). Apart from that dubious goal, one of its aims is apparently to make cycling more appealing by getting cool people to ride bikes, rather than just saying that bike riders are cool.
This reminded me of the constant effort that’s made to get The Kids interested in science by convincing them that scientists are cool. Which for some reason never seems to work.
Instead, I’m proposing that we take a cue from cycle chic and enlist as science communicators people who are already cool. And I’m talking really cool. Even cooler than Brian from D:Ream.
Our starting point? Björk.
As she so rightly says, the scientifical truth is much better – you shouldn’t let poets lie to you.
Astrocave 
This reminded me of the constant effort that’s made to get The Kids interested in science by convincing them that scientists are cool. Which for some reason never seems to work.
I think it’s because the smart ones can work out there’s no career in it, and so go for something which will allow them to take out a mortgage instead.
Ah yes, The Kids are always thinking about potential mortgages. What happened to wholesome childhood games like throwing rocks at each other?
The thing is, right, that The Kids frequently are interested in science. And then they realise that in order to do the fun stuff they have to first do an undergrad degree – which OK, they can still do minor explosions, and undergrad is frequently accompanied by alcohol and people who may be interested in actually talking to you, and/or other things – but in order to do the really large explosions you have to spend at least 4 years underpaid doing a PhD and selling your soul. Then you realise that Australia has no interest in actually paying scientists but rather is interested in funding its “industry” through the perpetual indentured labour of PhD students, and that’s usually when the dumb ones realise that they could have made large explosions AND gotten paid at a reasonable rate if they’d just joined the Army straight out of year 12.
OK, that could just be me.