On Mon, 30 Apr 2007, Michael Kenward wrote:
> The number of dim scientists I have met over the years far outweighs the
> bright ones. (My experience is that science writers are brighter, after all,
> it is harder to become one.)
What do you mean by bright? You seem to be mangling different skill sets
into one algorithm? I wouldn't argue one is necessarily brighter than
another as you're not comparing like for like.
> That's why so much science is piddling and irrelevant. What I call stamp
> collecting.
The whole point of science is that many experiments will prove to be just
one more chip off the rockface - you never know which little chip will
bring the whole rock face down. That doesn't mean the inconsequential
majority of work is irrelevant, far from it. As we all know, the fact that
the results of an experiment are often entirely as predicted is itself a
useful result and fundamental to science. The best science news stories
are of course when something unexpected is found (and preferably
independently verified!).
> It is amazing how the scientific world has maintained such a lie. Maybe it
> is down to those white coats.
Surely this is a public perception rather than something particularly
pushed by scientists themselves (though we all know of exceptions!). A lot
of people at school find science too hard, too much like hard work or
perhaps too boring to be bothered with. They therefore tend to associate
scientists with at least some of the above but probably in reverse
order...
Cheers,
Jonathan
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Dr Jonathan Tedds, Tel: +44 (0)116 252 3502
XMM-Newton Survey Science, AstroGrid &
European Virtual Observatory Data Centre Alliance,
Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Leicester, Email: [log in to unmask]
Leicester LE1 7RH, UK http://xmmssc-www.star.le.ac.uk/~jat
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