So, where were we?

Not as puzzled as he looks...

So, for some reason this evening, just as I was on the point of doing something else more useful, I heard the "scientist's So" on In our Time and was driven to near distraction, or at least to the point of sufficient curiosity to google: "Why do scientists start sentences with so?" (Google reminds me constantly that I am not alone, either in powers of observation or ability to rant about things of little consequence.)

So, it turns out that other people have noticed this insanely annoying habit of academics—especially those in the hard sciences and engineering—to begin their utterances with "so". It is, as one commentator puts it, more tic than conjunction, and is often self-aggrandizing (whether intentionally or otherwise is less clear).
 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9644000/9644002.stm

http://www.celestialmonochord.org/2006/01/scientists_say_.html

What is interesting about it, at least for those of us who routinely think of competence as systematic and performance as largely random and chaotic, is how regular and defining this is of a particular register: I really can't imagine any student of literature using it much, nor anyone in materials science being able to avoid it. (With linguists, it's anyone's guess, but my bet would be that there's a good correlation with how much of a 'real scientist' you would like to be taken for.)

So, that's it for now.