As my children reminded me this morning several times, today is April Fools Day. So I thought I might try for something funny. This poem by John Updike pokes fun at a busy day in the life of a scientist. One interpretation of the poem that I read said that it was a "critical look at the coldbloodedness of science." While that may be so, I think it rings even more truly as a commentary on the modern habit of being "busy doing nothing." So many things are done in the course of the poem, yet little is really accomplished. I have days like that all the time.

My favorite line in the poem is "kills a rat by ringing bells." (And by the way -- FRS means Fellow of the Royal Society)

V. B. Nimble, V. B. Quick

Science, Pure and Applied, by V. B. Wigglesworth, F. R. S., Quick Professor of Bioliogy in the University of Cambridge.
-- a talk listed in the BBC Radio Times

V.B. Wigglesworth wakes at noon,
Washes, shaves and very soon
Is at the lab; he reads his mail,
Swings a tadpole by the tail,
Undoes his coat, removes his hat,
Dips a spider in a vat
Of alkaline, phones the press,
Tells them he is F.R.S.,
Subdivides six protocells,
Kills a rat by ringing bells,
Writes a treatise, edits two
Symposia on "Will man do?,"
Gives a lecture, audits three,
Has the sperm club in for tea,
Pensions off an ageing spore,
Cracks a test tube, takes some
pureScience and applies it, finds,
His hat, adjusts it, pulls the blinds,
Instructs the jellyfish to spawn,
And, by one o'clock, is gone.