Swedish scientists admit to 17 years of sneaking Bob Dylan lyrics into research articles

For 17 years, Bob Dylan's lyrics have been showing up in rather unlikely places.

"Articles we have written about research by others, book introductions, editorials, and things like that," Eddie Weitzberg, a professor from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, confessed. "We're not talking about scientific papers — we could have got in trouble for that."

Weitzberg and his colleague, John Jundberg, began what's become a quirky tradition of Bob-Dylan oneupmanship when they wrote a piece about gas and titled it, "Nitric Oxide and inflammation: The answer is blowing in the wind." The duo thought it was a funny — and fun — little secret, so they kept adding snippets of Dylan songs into their work.

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A few years into the practice, The Local reports, Weitzberg and Jundberg invited their colleagues to join the competition. The pun-loving group expanded to include five scientists, who plan to keep the game up until retirement. The prize for the professor who pulls off the most Dylan references? One free lunch.