Sunday, April 16, 2006
Harvard Finds Use for Theses
Harvard (FN) - Researchers at the Harvard have made a discovery that has eluded academic institutions for centuries: a practical use for masters and doctoral theses.
Like most universities, Harvard is required to store the pointless and repetitive research papers produced by everyone who receives an advanced degree. Storage has been a problem until Harvard whiz kids landed on the idea of using thesis papers for insulation.
"As America's oldest university, we have felt the thesis problem more acutely than other institutions. After 370 years of handing out advanced degrees, we have buildings full of long, unreadable diatribes on every inhumanly boring topic under the sun. If we didn't do something, the sheer mass of stored theses threatened to create a black hole that would swallow the whole university," said Venkatesh "Venky" Narayanamurti, Harvard's Dean of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Materials engineering graduate students under the direction of Professor Michael Weitz succeeded in developing a form of spray-on coating that renders a thesis paper fire retardant and gives it an insulation level of R-30.
The resulting insulation product can be dropped directly into a wall cavity to save both energy and valuable university storage space. The spray does not mar the surface of the paper so the thesis is still legible in the unlikely event that someone in the future wants to read it.
Harvard has already started insulating buildings with thesis papers, although Narayanamurti says it will take years before the task is completed.
"At first we wanted to to it on a purely thematic basis by insulating the various academic buildings with related thesis. We soon found that we could have insulated the entire university with sociology thesis just on the topics of feminism and the effects of the patriarchy. We've tried to find other universities to take them, but they're saying they've had enough of that kind of stuff even as insulation."
posted by Mentok @ 9:35 p.m.,
6 Comments:
-
At 6:19 a.m.,
A. B. Chairiet said...
-
Ha. But why on earth do they save 'em in the first place??
Happy Monday!
~ Ash -
At 11:17 a.m.,
mkecurler said...
-
Finally saw the footage from the World Curling Canada vs Scotland. I did not know the CAN team was all french from Quebec. I think I'm going with saying sweep in french next season :)
-
At 12:21 p.m.,
Bathroom Hippo said...
-
Does Canada not have an Easter?
What do you guys celebrate? Ehster? -
At 6:13 p.m.,
Library Mama said...
-
"Like most universities, Harvard is required to store the pointless and repetitive research papers produced by everyone who receives an advanced degree."
Are they required to keep only "the pointless and repetitive research papers"? That seems rather pointless (and, in some cases, I'm sure, repetitive).
Haha. Haha. -
At 7:41 p.m.,
NL-ExPatriate said...
-
LOL good one!
Here's a gift for you MMT.
http://www.owned.com/Owned_Pictures/Cute_Owned_Pics/The_Gift/OWNED.html -
At 5:39 p.m.,
Gyrobo said...
-
Don't forget about the nutritional value of the paper.
Mmmmm, that's good eatin'!
