Ain't it just like Swedish scientists to play tricks when they're trying to be so scientific?

It turns out that a group of five Swedish scientists are obviously five believers in the words of Mr. Bob Dylan. They have taken to a friendly competition as to which one of them can slip in more references to Dylan in their research articles. The five are running a wager on who can squeeze the most in before retirement.

According to an interview with the Local, this little game began 17 years ago when Professors John Jundberg and Eddie Weitzberg, from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, wrote an article about gas passing through intestines. The title of the piece? 'Nitric Oxide and Inflammation: The Answer is Blowing In the Wind.' Other articles have featured references to a wide variety of Dylan lyrics as well as song and album titles.

"We both really liked Bob Dylan and we thought the quotes really fitted nicely with what we were trying to achieve with the title," Professor Weitzberg told the Local. It just so happened that, unbeknownst to them, a few of their colleagues were taking part in this then undeclared game. An article titled 'Blood on the tracks: a simple twist of fate,' caught their attention for its use of a Dylan album and song in the title. This would soon lead Jundberg and Weitzberg to challenge their colleagues.

"We're not talking about scientific papers, we could have got in trouble for that," said Weitzberg, "but rather articles we have written about research by others, book introductions, editorials and things like that."

Sooner or later, one of them must've know that this game would catch the attention of Dylan fans outside the science world. "I would much rather become famous for my scientific work than for my Bob Dylan quotes," said Weitzberg.

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