Dr Karl charms the crowd with science

Kristyn Comino

September 3: As Dr Karl Kruszelnicki was introduced on stage at the University of Canberra the audience were told tickets to the event through ABC Radio were snapped up in 40 minutes - supposedly the same time AC/DC’s Australian concert sold out. Dr Karl, as he is affectionately known, probably wouldn’t be considered a rock star of music like the members of AC/DC, but he certainly proved himself a rock star of science at the University for the free talk he gave as part of National Science Week (21 August 2009).

Dr Karl

The packed lecture theatre were treated to the enigma that is Dr Karl, a man known for his colourful shirts and his even more colourful way of getting science to the masses. The audience were taken on a journey of his amazing (and amusing) travels around the world, while he slipped in scientific facts as though they were just general conversation. But to Dr Karl science seems to be just general conversation, in a day and age where climate change has made us all sit up and listen he confessed he reads around $10,000 worth of scientific material a year and then “turns it into English” for the rest of us.

Thanks to his many books, his website and a spot on JJJ answering all manner of questions about science, Dr Karl’s popularity has continued to rise. He has even featured highly in The Reader’s Digest ‘Who do you trust?’ poll every year since it started in 2005, something he joked about during the talk. Producing a graph of his standings in the poll (going from seventh most trusted to tenth, to eleventh and then back to tenth again) bellows of laughter could be heard from the crowd as he then revealed one year he had been chosen as the person most trusted to fill out an online dating profile.

It is this humour that leaves you feeling like you’ve just been to a comedy show after seeing Dr Karl, but at the same time your mind is stimulated with new found knowledge. This mix is what seems to make the man so popular; such as when he explained killer whales are actually dolphins and that they aren’t friendly at all; “they’re wild animals whose smile is just an accident of anatomy. Underneath it there’s this big jaw and a gut where they can go and bite you”.

Going from his travels around the Antarctic to B-52 planes, Dr Karl doesn’t leave you hanging for a moment. You don’t have a chance to be bored as he constantly holds your attention, moving smoothly from one topic to the next even if they aren’t in the least bit related - which kind of sounds like his career. He has worked as a physicist, labourer, roadie for bands, car mechanic, film-maker, hospital scientific officer, biomedical engineer, TV weatherman, taxi driver and a medical doctor.

But despite all of these different jobs you can see being a science guru is Dr Karl’s true passion, summed up nicely when at the end of his talk at the university he invited the audience to ask questions about it and ended up getting a random one about whether déjà vu exists. He produced a detailed answer from the top of his head on the spot - something I wouldn’t be surprised if he could do for any science query you might have - and that’s what keeps us fascinated by Dr Karl.