‘Sorry, we can’t make a dragon’
Australian scientists apologize after request from seven-year-old
— Australia’s national science agency has apologized to the nation for failing to invent “a dragon or dragon eggs” after a seven-year-old girl wrote a letter asking for one for Christmas.
In the letter, addressed “Hello lovely scientist”, Sophie Lester wrote: “I would like it if you could, but if you can’t that’s fine.” Sophie, who had begged her parents for a baby dragon as a present, promised to call the dragon Toothless if it were a girl, and Stuart if it were a boy.
In a response posted on its website, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation said it was proud of its work since 1926 but regretted that it had yet to create or observe a firebreathing dragon.
“Over the past 87-odd years we have not been able to create a dragon or dragon eggs,” it said. “We have sighted an eastern bearded dragon at one of our telescopes, observed dragonflies and even measured body temperatures of the mallee dragon. But our work has never ventured into dragons of the mythical, fire breathing variety. And for this Australia, we are sorry.”
In the letter, Sophie promised to keep the dragon “in my special green grass area where there is lots of space, feed it raw fish and put a collar on it.”
Sophie’s mother Melissah Lester said her daughter was overjoyed with the response. “All her friends are now saying they want to be a scientist and Sophie says she now wants to work in the CSIRO. She’s saying Australian scientists can do anything,” she said.