586 Social Studies of Science

judge, it seems to be jusi as dismissive of the funny side of science.

The only cxception appears to be a paper by Martin Rudwick on
caricature.'
When this point is made in informal discussion with onc's col
leagues, not only do they usually express surprise that there is a
significan( humorous element in sdence, but they also tend toques
tion whether il would be worth studying anyway. 11 seems to be
assumed that the study of scientific humour mus1 ilself be
frivolous.
Even 1hose inrrepid explorers who have ventured to s1ay in a
scientific laboratory for an exlended period have so far nol analyz
ed the phenomenon of laboratory humour. Yet we are assured in
formally that humour is often quite a prominent feature of social
interaclion in laboratory seuings and tha1 researchers' talk, at least
in some labs, is continually punctuated by jokes and laughter. In
some cases, lhis aspect of laboratory life has even become formaliz
ed. For instance, 1he membcrs of the Sir William Dunn lns1i1ute
uoder Gowland Hopkins produced a comic journal every year bel
wecn 1923-31. 3 An earlier example, also from Cambridge, is lhe
Post-Prandial Proceedings of the Covendish Physicol Society in the
J.J. Thomson era.' There are, in addition, three famous fcstschrifts
for Niels Bohr issued by the lnstitute of Theoretical Physics,
Copenhagen, in 1935, 1945 and 1955, under the title Journal of
locutor Physics. In more recent limes, scientific humour and irony
have become ins1itutionali2ed in severa! 'joke journals'; the Jour
nal of /rreproducible Results, the Worm Runners' Digesl, lhe Jour
nol of lnsignificom Reseorch, the Subterroneon Sociology Newslet
ter and the Revues of Uncleor Physics. The firsl four of thcse are
described and discussed in a review by Garfield.' Furlhermore,
several varied collections of scienlists' humour have been
publishect and a paperback containing canoons from American
Scienlist is currently available to lhe general public'.'
ll is clear 1hat scientific culture is by no meaos entirely serious;
thal it aclually contains and generates various forms of humorous
activily. Bul even if humour does occur regularly in ali the main
realms of cuhural production in science - that is, in the
laboratory, lhe research li1era1ure and the popularizing media - it
is still possible toquestion whether there is anything to be gained by
studying it. We can lhink of three good reasons for studying scien
tific humour.