A tweet of mine went mildly viral0. There was a paper in PNAS about nasty surprises the climate might have in store for us1. It was reported in several places with the dread phrase: some scientists think.
This phrase irks me, falling somewhere below “some scientists believe” which suggests at least a bedrock of conviction on the scientist’s part, and “some scientists say” which implies that said scientist had reached the stage of articulation that involves another human being – someone who might laugh and tell other people behind their back – and which usually brings a mercifully-early end to the worst excesses of what “some scientists think“.
“I’m a scientist”, I thought. “I think. But this thinking has not always been followed by acts or words of great wisdom2. Often, the opposite happens and this might be a good way to illustrate the emptiness of the phrase”. Then, I thought, “What’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever done?”
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