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Marc-Denis Weitze · Wolfgang Chr. Goede Wolfgang M. Heckl Eds. Can Science Be Witty? Science Communication Between Critique and Cabaret Can Science Be Witty? Marc-Denis Weitze Wolfgang Chr. Goede Wolfgang M. Heckl Editors Can Science Be Witty? Science Communication Between Critique and Cabaret Editors Marc-Denis Weitze Wolfgang Chr. Goede TUM School of Social Sciences München and Technology München, Germany Technical University of Munich München, Germany Wolfgang M. Heckl Direktion Deutsches Museum München, Germany ISBN 978-3-662-65752-2 ISBN 978-3-662-65753-9 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-65753-9 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer- Verlag GmbH, DE, part of Springer Nature 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, repro- duction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dis- similar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and there- fore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE, part of Springer Nature. The registered company address is: Heidelberger Platz 3, 14197 Berlin, Germany Foreword I would’ve wanted to like, but allowed to like I didn’t dare! This squiggly saying by the brilliant Munich comedian Karl Valentin (1882–1948) captures the theme of this book with nano-sharp precision. How often I have found it confirmed in my career as a scientist: Esteemed and highly competent colleagues who come across as easygoing and funny in ev- eryday life literally go stale when they take to the lectern or stage, lead a seminar, or even just discuss scientific issues in front of a few people. Yet they would have had all the tal- ents for a lively and humorous presentation of their knowledge and findings. Too bad! Many have the best of intentions. But in front of the public, their courage folds up like a pocket knife. They fall into the often lifelong learned routine: deadly seri- ous, dry, outright boring—safe is safe. Science can’t take a joke, to laugh at it you go and hide in the basement. Really? Rhetorical looseness has also increasingly conquered the public sphere in Germany in recent decades. Instead of dry facts, dressed up in passive constructions, nouns and nested sentences, storytelling is gaining ground. If you want your v vi Foreword research to be remembered, you have to combine facts with emotions, find characters, and send them on heroic journeys. You see, it’s just a short step from here to humor! In this book, you will find a captivating firework of ex- amples and instructions for more humor in science, ignited by practitioners and professional cabaret artists, including those from the young genre of science cabaret. The “Big Bang Theory” around the nerdy physicist Dr. Sheldon Lee Cooper has probably persuaded more young people to study physics and science than the best-made tele- colleges. And we don’t remember the textbooks directly, but we do remember, for example, experiments in class that went wrong and amused us. It’s old hat in terms of learning psy- chology that content can simply be memorized much better via an emotional connection. So, please, become more cou- rageous to tell anecdotes, to tell stories, to tell witty bon mots! Browse through the 22 contributions of “Can Science Be Witty?”, let them inspire you to experiment, to simply in- teract with more fun for yourself and others about topics of science and education. The fact that humor knows no boundaries, but only many gray areas between amusement, satire, and criticism—as another great comedian, Gerhard Polt, found out—hopefully makes the topic and this book all the more exciting! And the next time you’re in Munich, pay a visit not only to the Deutsches Museum but also to the nearby Valentin Karlstadt Musäum. General Director of Wolfgang M. Heckl Deutsches Museum Munich, Germany Spring 2020 Contents 1 To Get Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Marc-Denis Weitze, Wolfgang Chr. Goede, and Wolfgang M. Heckl 2 Science Slam About Sheep Cheese and Car Tires . . . 11 Alex Dreppec 3 Laughter Tears Down Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Vince Ebert 4 “Die Anstalt” TV Show as an Example of Criticism, Satire, Humor in Science Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Dominik Eckert 5 Date an Engineer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Georg Eggers 6 Paradigm Disease: An Almost Incurable Scientific Epidemic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Peter L. W. Finke 7 Scientists, Magicians and Charlatans: How Magic Creates Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Thomas Fraps vii viii Contents 8 S earching for Humor in the Deutsches Museum: An Exploration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Wolfgang Chr. Goede 9 F rom Big Bang to Big Van . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Helena González Burón and Oriol Marimon Garrido 10 W hen a Dalmatian Comes to the Cash Register . . . . 101 Eckart von Hirschhausen 11 “ Teeth Baring” at acatech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Jaromir Konecny 12 W it and Lightness in Science: The International Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Bruce Lewenstein 13 “ You Don’t Understand Science Anyway!” . . . . . . . . 135 Constanze Lindner and Wolfgang Chr. Goede 14 D istance, Please! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Hanns J. Neubert 15 M enu Offering for the Holy Spirit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Martin Puntigam 16 D ictatorship of Stupidity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 Jean Pütz 17 A necdotes from My Physics Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Helmut Schleich 18 H umor in Knowledge Transfer: Academic Basics and a Workshop Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 Michael Suda 19 G eorg Christoph Lichtenberg: An Early Pioneer of Witty Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 Jürgen Teichmann Contents ix 20 Can the Anthropocene Be Witty? A Science Comic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 Helmuth Trischler 21 Science Cabaret: A Script. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 Marc-Denis Weitze 22 Done. Now What?! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 Wolfgang Chr. Goede Postscript: Corona Cabaret Critique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 1 To Get Started Marc-Denis Weitze, Wolfgang Chr. Goede, and Wolfgang M. Heckl We want to open a new chapter in science communication. Applying cabaret to research and technology. We are con- vinced that science and society come together better through a smile. Science communication is facts and emotion. M.-D. Weitze (*) TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany e-mail: [email protected] W. C. Goede Science Facilitation, Munich, Germany W. M. Heckl Deutsches Museum, Munich, Germany e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer-Verlag GmbH, 1 DE, part of Springer Nature 2023 M.-D. Weitze et al. (eds.), Can Science Be Witty?, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-65753-9_1