On the serious and the frivolous in (pseudo-)scientific literature

The general public often has a misconception about science and those who practice it. Many serious scientists are far from the stereotypical image of a closed, absent-minded eccentric, busy exclusively with his experiments. And scientific texts (especially popular science) do not have to be dry, strict, or overloaded with special vocabulary. In recent decades, collections of jokes and anecdotes about absent-minded scientists, smart students, and complex formulas have appeared in large numbers. Along with this, quite a lot of books have been published (memoirs, fiction, non-fiction), the authors of which, representatives of various scientific disciplines - physicists, economists, astronomers, mathematicians, philosophers - without trying to forcefully joke, present the material in a brilliant style, ironically and witty . The personal experience of the author, who taught computer subjects at Moscow State University for 20 years, shows that the best learning results are achieved when knowledge and skills are presented in an entertaining, playful way, with appropriate jokes. And his colleague, a mathematics professor from Rostov, writes in a personal letter: “I am a relatively professional clown,” which does not prevent him from successfully working in his specialty. The paper provides examples that demonstrate the fallacy of the idea that “science is difficult and boring, and scientists are eccentrics and bores.”