Science communication top tips: Professor Brindley and his big penis.

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Science communication top tips: Professor Brindley and his big penis.

It's been a while since I read this classic paper on best practice in science communication. Professor Brindley is keen to find a way of communicating his findings about vasoconsctriction in the penile veins to a challenging audience. The full story is given in the journal article below.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1464-410X.2005.05797.x/full

The Professor wanted to make his case in the most convincing style possible. He indicated that, in his view, no normal person would find the experience of giving a lecture to a large audience to be erotically stimulating or erection-inducing. He had, he said, therefore injected himself with papaverine in his hotel room before coming to give the lecture, and deliberately wore loose clothes (hence the track-suit) to make it possible to exhibit the results. He stepped around the podium, and pulled his loose pants tight up around his genitalia in an attempt to demonstrate his erection.

At this point, I, and I believe everyone else in the room, was agog. I could scarcely believe what was occurring on stage. But Prof. Brindley was not satisfied..

Read on.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1464-410X.2005.05797.x/full

reminded to me by www.twitter.com/vanillastarlet/
- 16 January 2012
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4 months ago dahamsta responded:

Gotta love that it's hosted on WILEY.com. ;)

4 months ago muscleguy responded:

The title is not really appropriate though. The original article describes it as long and thin. So hardly 'big' in most accepted meanings of the term. The only real thing wrong was that the, largely male, urologists' wives were in attendance. He should have offered samples to those said elderly urologists. Their wives may, or may not, have been grateful

4 months ago Kristen Sukalac responded:

While I am sure I would have been mortified if I were in the room, reading about this incident at a safe distance of several decades and time zones, I did find it pretty funny. I admire his dedication to his research, if not his respect for social norms.
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