Let’s play buzzword bingo - with a physics press release!

Popularized by a 1994 Dilbert cartoon , buzzword bingo is a satirical game that exposes the lazy, fatuous use of clichés in the corporate world.

To play, each person fills out a bingo card by writing in each of the squares a different hackneyed word or phrase, such as “set the expectation moving forward,” “open the kimono,” or “reach out to stakeholders.” Then, cards in hand, the players listen to an executive’s speech, attend a business meeting, or read an annual report. When they encounter a word or phrase on their card, they cross it off. The goal is to check off all the squares in a single row or column. Whoever finishes first says—or, given the likely setting, whispers—"Bingo!” and wins.

Last month, media consultant and blogger Adam Sherk ran 3000 corporate press releases through a text filter that had been primed to pull out buzzwords. He reported his results in a blog entry .

Although not as elaborate as “socialize the concept” or “operationalize the process,” Sherk’s buzzwords have lost their impact through overuse. The top nine, listed below, each occurred more than 200 times.

1. leading
2. solution
3. best
4. innovate/innovative/innovator
5. leader
6. top
7. unique
8. great
9. extensive

By coincidence, the e-mail that drew my attention to Sherk’s list arrived in my inbox just before a press release from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Entitled “Closing in on the Pseudogap,” the press release describes three experiments aimed at elucidating an enigmatic state of electronic matter in a high-temperature superconductor, lead bismuth strontium lanthanum copper oxide.

I’ve written news stories for Physics Today about superconductivity. The topic is difficult to get across to the magazine’s readers who don’t work in the field. It’s even harder to get across to the science journalists who read press releases. The author of the Lawrence Berkeley press release, Paul Preuss, did a great job.

Now I expect you’re wondering whether Preuss used any of Sherk’s buzzwords. The answer is no and yes.

In the 1632 words that Preuss wrote to describe and explain the experiments, not one of Sherk’s buzzwords appears. But in the 83-word paragraph that, I presume, Preuss and other authors of Lawrence Berkeley press releases are obliged to append, three of them appear:

So my advice to the Lawrence Berkeley press office amounts to a challenge: Try to rewrite your one-paragraph description of the lab so that it sounds fresher and less corporate. From an end-user perspective, it would be a winwin solution!