Ever wonder what esoteric erudite academics do to challenge ourselves? No, I guess that is not a burning question on society’s psyche. But, I’ll enlighten you anyway because it is entertaining in a juvenile and jovial way.

I was with a group of junior researchers in Oxford England and we were comparing our academic conquests in terms of conferences attended, papers presented and invited lectures. The group consisted of 3 males and one female. I have to admit the bragging and boisterous bravado reminded me of high school when boys would brag about “being with” girls. Yes there was most definitely some escalating and embellishment going on. Eventually, we came up with a contest amongst ourselves. The stakes were simply our undying admiration but the challenge was worthy of the challenge in Jules Vern’s around the world in 80 days.

The challenge was to see who could go to the farthest and most unique all expenses paid lecture to present an invited paper abroad during the coming year. The rules were simple; get invited to give a paper abroad but have the host pay for the privilege. No one needed to prove anything about the trip concerning invoices etc. This was a gentleman’s (and one lady) agreement.

It was a fun and educational year. I do not recall who won but I can say that we traveled multiple times to many exciting and exotic places. Throughout Europe, Japan, South Africa, USA (remember we are in England), North Africa (Algeria) and Brazil.

Yes that is a geeky thing to do but tons of fun and it was an education for me. I think all four of us learned that as native English speakers people in non-English speaking countries wanted to hear what we had to say and they wanted to hear it in English. English is the international language of science and technology and we are fortunate to be able to do what we do in our native tongue.

• Another academic game you can play is to spot the alliterations in my blog above. How many can you find?