Can Science Be Witty?: Science Communication Between Critique and Cabaret

Description

"Can science be funny?" takes a close look at an element of modern science communication that is as innovative as it is promising for the future: comedy! Readers are guided through vividly presented academic theory as well as exciting hands-on and best practice examples from renowned practitioners and cabaret artists: - What do sheep's cheese and car tires have in common? - Can laughter break down walls? - How does "Die Anstalt" work? - How does magic create knowledge? - Is there humor in museums? - When a Dalmatian comes to the cash register - Three steps to humor - Serving suggestion for the Holy Spirit - dictatorship of stupidity - And much more! But it's not all just funny. Comedy can also take away some of the biting sharpness of criticism, making it digestible, even palatable, for the addressees. "Can Science Be Funny?" navigates between criticism and cabaret, tackling comedy in various guises from different perspectives. 22 contributions show how the results of science, research and technology can be brought to the general public in new ways. In particular, they also demonstrate how humour can be used as a critical and questioning force - valuable for all types of communication and helpful so that they come across more shrewdly in the future. Foreword Contents 1: To Get Started Science Cabaret: A Vision Some Favorite Examples “It Has Long Been Known …” The Editors References 2: Science Slam About Sheep Cheese and Car Tires What Is That, Where Did That Come From? Is Everybody Allowed to Do That? How’s That? Does It Have to Be Funny? Examples and Standardization Questions Metaphors and Analogies Build Safe Bridges Is This Populism? Thigh-Slapping? The Author References 3: Laughter Tears Down Walls Joke Logic Create Curiosity Break the Rules Convince with Humor Laughter Kills Fear Satire Disenchants Taboos Be Sceptical Emotionalize Facts Computers with a Sense of Humor? The Author 4: “Die Anstalt” TV Show as an Example of Criticism, Satire, Humor in Science Communication How Is Science Communicated Here? The Double Staging Visual Representation Overstatement and Understatement Fact Check “Die Anstalt”: A Prime Example of Science Communication The Author 5: Date an Engineer The Author 6: Paradigm Disease: An Almost Incurable Scientific Epidemic Frightening Diagnosis Striving for Truth in Competition with Striving for Power Disease of Reason Itself Difficult Therapy More Favorable Prospects of Recovery for Paradigm Shifters Than for Paradigm Confirmers With Courage and Lateral Thinking Against Paradigms The Author References 7: Scientists, Magicians and Charlatans: How Magic Creates Knowledge “Metamagicum – Miracle Jokes Science” Between Superstition and Enlightenment The Zöllner-Slade Controversy The Geller Controversy Between Fact and Fiction Conclusion The Author References 8: Searching for Humor in the Deutsches Museum: An Exploration Astrology or Astronomy? Black Humor Museum Loriot and Tegtmeier Formula Moon Diet The Author 9: From Big Bang to Big Van Jesters of Science Club Appearance for Science From New Zealand to Turkey Critical Science Create Cross Connections Exercise Creativity Here Come the Science Bards The Authors 10: When a Dalmatian Comes to the Cash Register Newton vs. Murphy Gut vs. Head Effectiveness Studies on Cabaret Transcend Borders What Actually Is Humor? Three Steps to Humor Economics The Rule of Three Exercise The Author Reference 11: “Teeth Baring” at acatech You Can’t Renew Energy Like Bed Linen Tons of Tiramisu to Chow Down in Seconds Threatening Humanity with Cat Pictures The Author 12: Wit and Lightness in Science: The International Perspective Of Pioneers and Coincidences Accidents and Frankenstein Food Between Governance and Dissemination Science Festivals and Science Slams Peer Pressure The Author References 13: “You Don’t Understand Science Anyway!” The Author 14: Distance, Please! Beware of the Exotic Corner The Author 15: Menu Offering for the Holy Spirit Questions of Culinary Physics Wishes of the Shooting Stars The Author 16: Dictatorship of Stupidity Emotions Remained Stuck in the Stone Age Rational Beings of All Countries, Unite! The Author 17: Anecdotes from My Physics Class Physics Teachers Pat and Patachon The Author 18: Humor in Knowledge Transfer: Academic Basics and a Workshop Report Humor Definitions Humor Types The Gelotophobes The Flat Humor The Cabaret Humor The Chaos Humor or Nonsense Humor Laughter Is Healthy Humor Theories Aggression or Superiority Theory Facilitation or Relaxation Theory Incongruity Theory Alternate Theory Morreall’s Theory Latta’s Theory So What Does All This Mean for Teaching? Epilogue: Humor in Teaching – Experiences from 52 (Minus One Vacation) University Semesters Looking at Wooden Benches The Author References 19: Georg Christoph Lichtenberg: An Early Pioneer of Witty Science Of Mnemonic Devices and “Solid Jokes” Lichtenberg: Too Popular or Not Popular Enough? Between Experimental Physics and Polemics From Teaching to Broad Knowledge Transfer The Author Reference 20: Can the Anthropocene Be Witty? A Science Comic Communication of the Anthropocene Comedy in the Anthropocene The Dystopian World of the Anthroprocene Outlook The Author References 21: Science Cabaret: A Script Artificial Meat (Lecture Text) What Scientists Learn from Cabaret Artists When a Scientist Comes to a Cabaret Artist Artificial Meat Cabaret: The Key Points A Guide The Author 22: Done. Now What?! Humor Recipes The Courage of Self-Mockery Jesters as an Early Warning System Profession with a Future: Science Joker! The Author References Postscript: Corona Cabaret Critique