[USMA:27377] The Worst Jobs In Science

[Brenton Conway]

In the October 2003 issue of Popular Science, on page 69 there is an article is written about The Worst, Most Torturous, Icky, Painful, Stinky, Dangerous, and just plain horrible jobs in science.   In their opinion, the twelve worst jobs are listed as follows;   1.                  Flatus Odour Judge. 2.                  Dysentery Stool-Sample Analyser. 3.                  Barnyard Masturbator. 4.                  Brazil Mosquito Researcher. 5.                  Hot-Zone Superintendent. 6.                  Isolation Chamber Tester. 7.                  Fistula Feeder. 8.                  Prison Rape Researcher. 9.                  Carcass Cleanser. 10.              Postdoc. 11.              Metric System Advocate. 12.              Corpse-Flower Grower.   11. METRIC SYSTEM ADVOCATE The Metric Program of the National Institute of Standards and Technology has a bold, if Napoleonic, motto: "Toward a Metric America." That is, a fanciful future in which we'll buy decagrams of hamburger and litters of gas. Problem is, the Metric Program employs just two evangelists—hail, ye lone voices in the wilderness!—to convert 281 million recalcitrant American imperial-unit holdouts. Launched with much hope by the Federal Metric Conversion Act of 1975, the Metric Program 28 years later meekly soldiers on, advising federal bureaucracies and trying to pitch the system to—well, to anyone who will listen. The dynamic decimal duo, who declined interview requests, did say that they really work only part-time on metric salesmanship. So it would seem: A spokesman for the program, when queried, didn't know his own height in metres     Reference: http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/article/0,12543,484153-1,00.html