Is it just "boffin" or Dr. boffin in this particular case of Dr Oren, the boffin?
Damn you El Reg, Call me a Boffin, demands enraged boffin
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Wednesday 11th June 2014 08:41 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: @stanimir
I'm a Dr. but not a boffin... Clearly 'boffin' outranks 'Dr.', as does 'Prof.' People writing 'Prof Dr.' e.g. are clearly just either sucking up or following institutional policy.
And don't get me started on the Germans with titles like 'Dr. Dr.' ...
tl;dr / executive summary: Dr. > Prof. > boffin
(and sociologist > C. elegans)
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Wednesday 11th June 2014 09:33 GMT Otto von Humpenstumpf
Re: @stanimir
And don't get me started on the Germans with titles like 'Dr. Dr.' ...
"The Germans", as you like to put it, don't have a class-based society -- this was abolished by law in the Weimar Republic, if I remember correctly.
Instead, degrees like "Dr", "Prof", etc. are highly respected, *because they're earned, rather than inherited*. Holding the title of Ingenieur (engineer, or "Dipl.-Ing.") is something to be proud of, and commands respect. In Germany, there aren't any "maintenance engineers"; they're called what they are: mechanics. And there's nothing wrong with that either, as the vast majority have served an apprenticeship of three years, and really know what they're doing.
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Thursday 12th June 2014 07:57 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: maintenance engineers
"We have a firm of subbies that work for us and they are all senior this and principle that"
The best (or worst, depending on your point of view) job title that I've seen has to be 'Group Operations Director'... calling yourself GOD is maybe taking things just a little bit too far!
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Thursday 12th June 2014 12:16 GMT Intractable Potsherd
Re: @stanimir
On the other hand, my wife is from one of the countries that is anal about titles, and was delighted to move to the UK where she could lose the "Dr Mgr Mgr", and not even have to use the Dr if she didn't want to - something that is akin to fraud in the minds of her countryfolk. Personally, I tend towards the attitude of "If you are not a medical doctor, it is confusing to use the title. Just use your name and PhD after it if it is relevant (which in most cases outside work, it isn't)".
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Thursday 12th June 2014 16:20 GMT Michael Wojcik
Re: @stanimir
If you are not a medical doctor, it is confusing to use the title
Only because that confusion was sown by fradulent sawbones in the early modern era. "Doctor" etymologically means "scholar"; medical practitioners who don't do research shouldn't be using it in the first place. While many clinicians are fine people and I'm glad to see them when I need my body-plumbing inspected, they're no more "doctors" than the typical lawyer or engineer is.
If I'm going to refer to my dentist and veterinarian as "doctor", you can be damn sure I'll show the same courtesy to people who actually conduct research and contribute original work to their field.
(By the same token, I don't share the Reg's disparaging attitude toward psychologists, many of whom conduct extensive, methodologically-sound, useful studies on difficult subjects which have helped debunk any number of dangerous myths about human behavior. But I also recognize the Reg lives to annoy and earns some credit for it by entertaining, and occasionally informing, me. Which is more than I can say for most people I've met who think "doctor" has something to do with medicine.)
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Wednesday 18th June 2014 19:02 GMT Hollerith 1
Re: @stanimir @ Michael Wojcik
Yes, Doctor is an ancient pre-medical title, and at Oxford and Cambridge, the highest form of Doctor is Doctor of Divinity. The Doctor of Medicine is a johnny-come-lately and these have to trail behind Doctors of Philosophy, Humanities etc etc.
Most people's interactions with a doctor are with the medical breed, so to them that is the 'real' kind, just as one's own currency is 'real' money.
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Wednesday 11th June 2014 18:08 GMT VinceH
Re: @stanimir
""And don't get me started on the Germans with titles like 'Dr. Dr.' ..."
Although it's fine when Robert Palmer is looking for the news about a bad case of loving you."
Or when the Thompson Twins want you to observe that they are burning, burning, and then tell them that this is indeed love they're feeling.
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Wednesday 11th June 2014 08:23 GMT Michael H.F. Wilkinson
Re: Shock!
Boffins really, really need a sense of humour. If you cannot poke fun at life, the universe, and everything, you might end up starting to take yourself and (worse) your ideas way to seriously. You might even end up believing in them, which totally scuppers your critical attitude. A good capacity for self-deprecation or even self mockery is important in science.
This is why I like writing the odd paper for Annals of Improbable Research. Must get that paper on pasta-antipasta collision experiments finished.
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Wednesday 11th June 2014 08:44 GMT Elmer Phud
Re: Before acquiescing to his demand...
"But not a pristine white coat"
Yup, they are mainly reserved for the 'I'm not a dentist but I intend on making you think I am one to flog you a product that will have you runniing scared to your real dentist to fork out real money after you've used it"
Then there are the 'Forget about just using conditioner and a fine comb - you need to pour this completely unnecessary bottle of insecticide on your kids head" white coats, too.
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Tuesday 24th June 2014 04:22 GMT kiwimuso
Re: Before acquiescing to his demand...
@Elmer Phud
Ha! That reminds of a particularly inane advertisement for toothpaste down in this part of the world (much as I would like to, the brand shall remain nameless) in which a woman in a white lab coat was perched on a stool in front of a white (or black) board and announced that, "I'm a scientist, so I know about equations." and then proceeded to tell us why we should buy the toothpaste she was promoting with know further mention of any equations or proof as to why it was better.
Maybe it also killed 99% of all household germs!!!
I would use the joke icon because that is what it was, but they appeared to be serious about it.
Have a beer instead. It's much better for your teeth.
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Wednesday 11th June 2014 09:21 GMT John 110
White coats (was Re: Before acquiescing to his demand...)
The lab block in the large UK teaching hospital where I work has a complex hierarchy of white coats. like so:
University employees: don't wear coats, just latex gloves (which they proceed to use to grasp doorhandles etc)
NHS employees have a sub hierarchy.
Blood sciences (a largely automated discipline) : Pristine white coats, single breasted, but buttoned for safety reasons.
Microbiology : Double breasted Howie coats (mad scientist specials) usually spattered with Gram stain and peppered with holes where acid is spilled. (it is a point of pride NOT to have "biological" material on your coat!)
Histopathology : as Micro, but with much more staining, especially towards the rear (the most convenient place to wipe stain off your hands...) and added paraffin wax and plaster and various toxic substances (usually with benzene rings in them).
Medics of various ilks tend to wear unbuttoned standard coats when they leave their room, but not down to the wards (Infection control issue)
Hope this helps....
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Wednesday 11th June 2014 09:28 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Acquired a negative connotation?
I have 2 daughters, one who is highly academic, and one who is definitely not. The thick one has been known to call the clever one a 'boffin' (or 'boff'), in the pejorative sense. I mention this because she almost certainly picked it up from the local 'comprehensive camp' they both attend. Therefore, the shameful use of 'boffin' as an insult is probably more widespread that many el reg readers might realise particularly for the young and ignorant.
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Wednesday 11th June 2014 07:37 GMT Ketlan
My naughty Aunt M
My very naughty Aunt M was shagging the science master at the posh school they both worked at when I was a mere sprog. Said master wore a white coat in the lab so Auntie M could have been said to have been boffing the boffin, the bad girl.
Still better than muffin the mule though!
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