Saturday, July 28, 2007
One for the Quizzers!
I came across this gem on Marginal Revolution today. Next week, a doctoral candidate will submit his doctoral thesis in astrophysics at the Imperial College, London. The thesis is titled "Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud" and is being defended by a 60-year old 'student' who had given up his doctoral work to pursue an alternative career. The question, obviously, is who?
Now, a lot of people have asked me over the years how a quizzer's mind works. I have maintained that a good quizzer is someone who has a solid base of knowledge and the ability to think laterally and imaginatively. A lot of people assume just the base of knowledge will do, and I disagree. This question posed above requires a combination of the two skills.
Clearly, one makes the assumption this person is famous (why else would it matter). He obviously left his doctoral work for the career which made him very famous, since the astrophysics profession isn't really known to create stars (pun unintended). Given these two assumptions, you then have to scan your base of knowledge to find out which celebrity was also a well-regarded amateur astronomer and chances are you have your answer right there.
Okay, I am done with the digression. The 60-year old doctoral candidate defending his thesis next week is Brian May, the legendary guitarist of the late, great Queen. Besides "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "We will Rock You," May also happens to be the author of "Bang: The Complete History of the Universe."
Dr Brian May. Ha!
Now, a lot of people have asked me over the years how a quizzer's mind works. I have maintained that a good quizzer is someone who has a solid base of knowledge and the ability to think laterally and imaginatively. A lot of people assume just the base of knowledge will do, and I disagree. This question posed above requires a combination of the two skills.
Clearly, one makes the assumption this person is famous (why else would it matter). He obviously left his doctoral work for the career which made him very famous, since the astrophysics profession isn't really known to create stars (pun unintended). Given these two assumptions, you then have to scan your base of knowledge to find out which celebrity was also a well-regarded amateur astronomer and chances are you have your answer right there.
Okay, I am done with the digression. The 60-year old doctoral candidate defending his thesis next week is Brian May, the legendary guitarist of the late, great Queen. Besides "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "We will Rock You," May also happens to be the author of "Bang: The Complete History of the Universe."
Dr Brian May. Ha!
