But then anxiety descended: maybe these TV chaps would lose interest and go away. So guess how the story ended. With me groveling under the bench, twiddling the apparatus around more quickly that it ever moved before or since. Utter nonsense. But we had played the media game, and both sides, in their own ways, were happy.
Even worse was an incident a few months later when the university's public relations officer decided to publicize some work on the epidemiology of respiratory infections that was being carried out by a virologist in the same department. A press release was issued highlighting the practical importance of the research, but emphasizing that the man concerned had not actually discovered the viruses whose spread he was charting. No matter. Two days later, our local evening paper carried the banner headline CITY BOFFIN FINDS DEADLY KILLER VIRUS.
For such reasons, one sympathizes with scientists ...
