^{Hier geht es zur deutschen Version.}

Dear #steemstem Community!

Here I present you a small but rather genius pearl of the extraordinary humour of us scientists!

As you may know, sometimes people say that we scientists are also human beings with feelings, but since I have not yet found any general, positive proof for this thesis, I have to doubt it for the purpose of scientific progress. However, surprisingly even within the scientific community we find circumstantial evidence which seems to support this assumption. Examples include profession of love or marriage proposals, which were cleverly woven into our specialized literature. (@aboutcoolscience: Love and science)

But there is still a lot more of this. And as we are heading towards April 1st, I would like to present you a brilliant Nature article, which was released on April 2nd, 2015:

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‘Here be dragons‘

^{Source: pixabay}

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A nearly two pages long article with a brilliant, captivating introduction was published assigned to the category of 'Zoology'.

"Emerging evidence indicates that dragons can no longer be dismissed as creatures of legend and fantasy, and that anthropogenic effects on the world’s climate may inadvertently be paving the way for the resurgence of these beasts." – Ref. 1

Then it really gets started with the following argument:

"Until recently, however, scant attention had been paid to the fact that the commonality in cultural representations of such creatures indicates something more sinister. From depictions in Ancient Greek literature and Slavic myth, to the dragons of the East or allusions in Zoroastrian scripture, the descriptions resonate. What if these legends were rooted in truth? The differences in appearance — some lack wings, some have multiple heads and some seem not to breathe fire — once thought to reflect local traditions, can also readily be explained by speciation." - Ref. 1

The whole article is written as profoundly and intelligently as you would expect it from a Nature article. Next, the authors suggest that documents from the shoals of the Oxford Bodleian Library have greatly driven the investigation into this issue, and that the treatise of a monk named Godfrey of Exmouth has provided evidence for thousands of years in which dragons have periodically been a scourge to civilizations.

To anyone who has so far fallen for this ingenious article and has been enjoying the content with a maximum of only weak skepticism, it is the next statement after which 'the dragon scales should fall from your eyes':

"Further work has revealed that the early medieval period was a veritable paradise for dragons. This can be attributed to the period’s unusually warm temperatures (Fig. 2) and an abundance of knights, the beasts’ favourite combatant and food. It was also a time when wealth and status were measured in terms of gold and silver — the preferred nesting material for Western dragons. As result, the major needs for living, feeding and, crucially, relaxation were readily available to dragons, allowing populations to flourish." - Ref. 1

Oh fiery hell yeah, that's right! It's actually referring to a graphic and this one is by no means less delicate than the rest of the text:

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"The rise and fall and rise again of dragons. The relative frequency of ‘dragons’ in fictional literature (thick red line), as determined as a unigram probability, with two historical reconstructions of Northern Hemisphere temperature shown in blue and purple. Global temperatures have been measured since 1855 (thick black line). [...] The rising incidence of dragons in the literature correlates with rising temperatures, and suggests that these fire-breathing lizards are being sighted more frequently. As a result, the large-scale ‘Third Stir’ is deemed to be imminent."
^{Source: Ref.[1]}

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I would like to excerpt some more highlights:

"The combination of decreasing temperatures and a sharp decline in the number of knights saw the onset among dragons of The Great Sleep around the start of the fifteenth century. Such a phenomenon is well recognized: many ectothermic beasts enter a period of brumation (analogous to hibernation in endotherms) under adverse food and climatic conditions." - Ref. 1

"This belief [that dragons have become extinct] has further been extended to a perplexing level, whereby conventional opinion now holds that dragons, and indeed all other magical beings, are mere fantasy. Such a creed has been a blessing for dragons, because it spelt an end to the persecutions. Witches are now seen as crazy but harmless women, and wizards as senile old men with nothing better to do than wander around folk festivals in funny hats." - Ref. 1

The authors conclude their Nature - article with the following statement:

"Further research into fireproof protective clothing is highly recommended — as is an avoidance of honorific titles." - Ref. 1

Funnily, this article even cites six different references and some of which also deal with dragons. Furthermore the following note can be found:

"This article first appeared online on 1 April 2015;
some of its content may merit a degree of scepticism."

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All the wording in grey are direct quotations from the original paper.

I hope you have had as much pleasure with this article as I and my colleagues had just under three years ago enjoying the original - which, by the way, is freely accessible. You can find the link below!

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For now we have to wait and hope that there will another ridiculous and funny article on the upcoming April 1st, 2018. :)

Best,
mountain,phil28

Reference:

1. A. J. Hamilton, R. M. May, E. K. Waters Here be dragons, Nature, 2015, 520, pp. 42–43
   Use this Link for the free available original paper.