OK, the monkey business may have been a little too abstract for a good audience participation entry. So let’s fall back on a classic:
What science-related superpower would you most like to have?
Because this is a Dorky Poll, “science-related superpower” here means a supernatural ability that is useful for doing science. Because battling crime is passé.
Personally, I think I’d have to go with the ability to manipulate small objects remotely. I’m a big guy, and I have big hands, and you know what they say about big guys with big hands…
That’s right, they have a lot of trouble turning screws in small spaces. And I work with lasers and optics, where all of the critical adjustments are made by turning tiny little screws, which are frequently located behind or underneath other things, in places where my hands don’t fit.
The ability to turn small screws with my mind, from a distance, would be invaluable to me as an experimental physicist. To hell with invisibility, or the power of flight– I need to be able to tweak up my lasers more efficiently.
So, what superpower would make your scientific career easier?