Publish and be damned funny

Fed up with rejection letters from academic journals? Then why not publish your own magazine?

Three Bristol academics tired of poor job prospects and dismal salaries have done just that.

A heady cocktail of science and humour, Null Hypothesis , The Journal of Unlikely Science is storming the hallowed halls of science publishing and even outselling established titles such as New Scientist in some stores.

"We've tapped into a demand for making science humorous, breaking through the fear factor of more serious magazines," said Mark Steer, co-founder of Null Hypothesis with Andrew Impey and Dave Hall. "We've just heard that Borders will stock it."

"Our target was academics, undergrads and postgrads, but our core audience is actually the general public, so we've had to completely redefine the magazine," Dr Impey said. "It's brilliant to increase public understanding of science."

Bristol University has given the magazine its full support.

Paul Hayes, head of biological sciences, said: "Anything that helps dispel the stuffy image of science has to be a good thing and, let's face it, New Scientist isn't the most entertaining read on earth."

Null Hypothesis articles include summaries of amusing research, spoof articles and spotlights on offbeat science careers.

Nine issues in, the magazine is moving to new offices and its founders are finalists in a regional business competition.

This week, the team is taking its tongue-in-cheek methodology to the Cheltenham Science Festival, promising toast-flipping experiments (butter side up or down?)and camera links to a forest to watch for trees silently falling.