Beyond the white-coat, serious, severe image of scientists accentuated by popular media, underneath it all scientists are human beings, with human emotions, frailties, capacities for excellence, and occasional flashes of effulgent brilliance. Thanks to Twitter, I came across one such example today, and it made me recognize that fact again, with a great deal of pleasure.

Dr. Caleb M. Brown (@Brown_Caleb_M on Twitter) is a scientist at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in Alberta, Canada, studying dinosaur paleobiology and evolution. His latest scholarly work in this area was published today in a Cell Press journal, Current Biology, in which he and his fellow author described the discovery of a new horn-bearing dinosaur and adduced evidence for a convergent evolution in bony horn displays on the skulls of certain North American dinosaurs.

Fascinating as his work is, that was the not the only novel part in his paper. Tucked away at the end of the acknowledgments in the paper, was a… [drumroll] MARRIAGE PROPOSAL. A marriage proposal! How brilliant is that!

Caleb M Brown's proposalImage: screenshots from the published paper

Like many others in Twitterverse, I was all agog to learn what came of this dramatic and novel and brilliant proposal. Judging by the responses from Canadian Journalist/biologist David Manly – who first pointed out the proposal on Twitter – she said “Yes!”

My best wishes to Lorna and Caleb for a happily married life and great accomplishments.