How can a person become famous? A man named Aeron Haworth appears to be conducting a personal experiment to answer that simple question.
Mr. Haworth’s job title is media officer for the University of Manchester’s Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences, so presumably (and by his account, emphatically) he knows what he is doing.
A growing number of science journalists are monitoring the experiment, and trying their best to write clear accounts of Mr. Haworth’s actions.
You may find these accounts entertaining, horrifying, enlightening, or some combination of all three. Read accounts by Ed Yong [who served, unknowingly, as the inspiration for the experiment], Ivan Oransky [and be sure to dip into the comments thread following his account], Maryn McKenna, Deborah Blum, and if you do a bit of searching, by numerous other fascinated observers.
UPDATE (Feb 16): Today Mr. Haworth supplemented his own ongoing writeup of the experiment. His emphasis: the experiment at some point involved “a few glasses of wine“.
BONUS: Here’s a Sense About Science interview with Mr. Haworth, conducted before he began his experiment.
BONUS: Dunning & Kruger’s prize-winning classic study, which may be of little interest to Mr. Haworth.