Close by, the Professor and Mopey are engaged in…uh…robust scientific discussion, I would call it.
Mopey is trying to hammer her anti-thesis home, but the Professor, supporting the thesis, tries to bury her under a mountain of only tangentially relevant, obscure literature. With added appendices and footnotes for good measure. Neither side is willing to consider a snythesis in this no-holds-barred, fight-to-the-finish, all-out, free-for-all scientific brawl. The old, veteran (and tenured!) scientist against the up-and-coming postgraduate researcher.
The ever-repeating cycle of academic live, and here at the same time also the eternal struggle between good and evil. ._.
And it’s very hard to call a favourite. A mountain of obscure research papers is a powerful weapon, but a huge wooden mallet is a great argument in any dispute, especially when it’s glowing with supernatural energy.
Check the next issue of Journal of Military Research Ethics for the exciting conclusion of this thorough discussion on the morality of conducting groundbreaking scientific research on the payroll of a megalomanic military dictator on an isolated Pacific Island.
More on Thurs…uh, Monday!