Vancouver scientist Chris Shaw is no stranger to controversy. He played a role in opposing the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, even penning an impressive polemic against the event called Five Ring Circus. He served as a medical coordinator at Occupy Vancouver and he even took on the thankless task of running for city council as a candidate for the upstart De-Growth Vancouver. (Full disclosure: I have known Shaw through his political activism now for several years.) You would think with so much controversy in his political life, he would play it safe in his professional work as a research scientist.