Off color

MIT has given us some of the greatest technological gifts we have. As well as, er, this ...

We have the Masschusetts Institute of Technology to thank for the web, GPS and now, we're told, a material called LiquiGlide that stops toothpaste getting stuck in the tube. All world-changing innovations — a description that I regret to say does not apply to another of its recent wheezes, ColorMePhD.

It's a collection of line drawings illustrating the research being done at MIT. You're meant to colour them in. But who are they for?

This is what the website says: "By sharing these coloring pages, we hope to spark interest in science and engineering for all young students, regardless of gender, race, or socioeconomic status. And: "Adults and parents: We encourage you to participate in our coloring books too! Part of being a good scientist is sharing your results with the community- and who doesn't love a relaxing break to color?"

The project's creator, Julie Storrer, a postdoctoral research associate in chemical engineering, explains how it came about: "After publishing my first scientific paper, I was motivated by my love of art, science, and teaching to create a drawing of my research to explain what I do to the non-scientific community."

Well, that would include me, and I'm afraid that, having had my interest piqued by the idea of "breathable batteries", I found the drawing baffling.

Here's another, from ColorMePhD volume 2, celebrating women in Stem subjects.

Would it mean mean of me to say it's vomit-inducingly twee? Children aren't taken in by this sort of self-aggrandising nonsense. If you want them to colour in something educational, how about a diagram of a copper sulphate molecule or of a human cell?