{"id":100,"date":"2008-04-09T05:43:19","date_gmt":"2008-04-09T05:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/2008\/04\/09\/to_hell_with_it\/"},"modified":"2008-04-09T05:43:19","modified_gmt":"2008-04-09T05:43:19","slug":"to_hell_with_it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/2008\/04\/09\/to_hell_with_it\/","title":{"rendered":"To hell with it."},"content":{"rendered":"

Over on the end of the Pier, Henry (or is that ‘Hunry’?) is whining<\/a> about someone most of the civilized world has never heard of appearing on a British TV show, and where this might end<\/a> . Maxine<\/a> reckons it’s no bad thing, and Jenny<\/a> says it’s all good for the ‘whole geek chic<\/a> movement’.<\/p>\n

\nI detect an undercurrent of insecurity in such discussions. Those of us who are practising scientists (I like ‘practising’; it implies we’re trying to get better at it) are very well aware that the rest of the world, when it thinks of us at all, views us with a mixture of scorn, pity and dread. We are reviled for having no dress or fashion sense, no cultural sensitivity, no social skills. We are scared that we are labelled as geeks, or \u2014 even worse \u2014 nerds.<\/p>\n

\nSome of us make a conscious effort to counteract the public image of a scientist. We deliberately do not wear socks with sandals. We read (and sometimes write) poetry and prose<\/a> , we are proud of our culinary<\/a> , artistic<\/a> , and other extra-curricular<\/a> activities. Others, perhaps more bravely, intercede for us through weblogs; and yet others prefer to patronize (PUS<\/a> ). <\/p>\n

\nBut sometimes it feels as if we are yelling into an empty room. We are resounding gongs or clanging cymbals, and nobody is listening. This can lead to dejection, despair and Australian lager.<\/p>\n

\nTo hell with it, I say.<\/p>\n

\nBrothers and sisters, we are scientists<\/em>. We hold the secret of life in our hands. We probe the very fabric of the Universe, and pick it apart thread by thread.<\/p>\n

\nWhy, then, do we cower in our labs and offices and dingy little seminar rooms, over-worked and underpaid, while our true worth is hidden under a bushel? I say we rise up, we activate our army of cloned bioinformaticians and mindless grad students, and hold the world’s governments hostage. We can build machines<\/a> that make the Death Star<\/a> look like a Lego toy (what is the power to destroy a planet compared to smashing really small things together really really fast and making black holes<\/a> , hey?).<\/p>\n

\nThe Public Fear<\/em> of Science. Now there’s something worth working for.<\/p>\n

\nNow, if only my bloody cloning would work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over on the end of the Pier, Henry (or is that ‘Hunry’?) is whining about someone most of the civilized world has never heard of appearing on a British TV show, and where this might end . Maxine reckons it’s … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}