In a hearing involving the health and safety of high-voltage powerlines I testified on behalf of the staff of the New York Public Service Commission. During my cross-examination by Henry Noll, one of the lawyers representing the Niagara Mohawk Power Company, the following exchange occurred.

Q: Dr. Marino, in your experiments, was the electric field applied in the horizontal direction?

A: Correct.

Q: I think you would agree that rats tend to spend most of their time on all fours.

A: Right.

Q: And the human is more likely to be… (pause)

A: On two feet.

Q: …standing up. I didn’t want to say “erect.”

(laughter)

As I sat there in the courtroom waiting for the laughter to subside I thought how human it was to recognize humor in the middle of a proceedings to decide whether people could lawfully operate a business in such a way as to cause disease in other people.