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Okay, this was spawned by two things in the last week. The first is a discussion in my Honors Seminar on science and scientists. How do you define a scientist? Is the biology undergraduate filling test tubes for her professor a scientist? What about the Appolo 11 astronauts retrieving Moon rocks for NASA to study? Both may be participating in science, but they are not scientists -- a scientist is someone who thinks scientifically about the universe. It doens't matter if they were formally trained. One of the presenters at MARAC, a regional astronomy conference I went to last year was an amatuer. He charted variable stars from his backyard with privately bought equipment. Sky and Telescope is full of information on how amatuer astronomers can do meaningful research.
More to the point, a scientist is someone who cannot imagine not doing science. Even if she/he doens't have the degree, he/she will do everything they can to get involved -- even if it's as simple of askign questions like 'Is this star a variable star?' or 'What type of birds are native to this microclimate and which migrate through?'
The second matter was about writing. Someone posted a quote from a ff.netter's profile to one of the fanfiction-related communities I'm in -- the quote said how the ff-netter felt sorry for all those authors who stopped writing because some mean person (like us) told them they needed to improve. The person writing the livejournal comment went on to say that s/he didn't feel that way -- a real writer would keep writing even if her arms were surgically removed form her body. Real writers cannot imagine not writing either -- even if they know they will never be published and the most tangible reward they will ever get are feedback off of fictionpress, ff.net, m.org or another site.
I am a real scientist -- I've always wanted to be one, even when I only had the vaguest idea of what one was. If I flunk out of Physics, I can take Chemistry, or Linguistics, or some other branch of science (hard or soft). If I can't complete my PhD, I can be an amatuer scientist -- save up and buy a telescope and CCD camera and study variable stars or spot comets and supernovae by night and devour magazines by day. Thing is, I feel the same way about my hobbies -- I cannot imagine not drawing, or writing, or singing. The difference between my hobbies and my (future) profession is only one of talent and logic (I have a better shot at being a scientist than a fiction writer or an artist or a singer) and not of drive. I guess I am a Renaissance woman.
What I don't get is people who don't have a single thing like this. People who just drift through life, doing basically survival things -- working their hours at their job and coming home to veg in front of the TV until bedtime. I understand that not everyone can have their passion and their career as the same thing -- passion and talent don't always go together. But to have nothing they care about... I just don't get it.
More to the point, a scientist is someone who cannot imagine not doing science. Even if she/he doens't have the degree, he/she will do everything they can to get involved -- even if it's as simple of askign questions like 'Is this star a variable star?' or 'What type of birds are native to this microclimate and which migrate through?'
The second matter was about writing. Someone posted a quote from a ff.netter's profile to one of the fanfiction-related communities I'm in -- the quote said how the ff-netter felt sorry for all those authors who stopped writing because some mean person (like us) told them they needed to improve. The person writing the livejournal comment went on to say that s/he didn't feel that way -- a real writer would keep writing even if her arms were surgically removed form her body. Real writers cannot imagine not writing either -- even if they know they will never be published and the most tangible reward they will ever get are feedback off of fictionpress, ff.net, m.org or another site.
I am a real scientist -- I've always wanted to be one, even when I only had the vaguest idea of what one was. If I flunk out of Physics, I can take Chemistry, or Linguistics, or some other branch of science (hard or soft). If I can't complete my PhD, I can be an amatuer scientist -- save up and buy a telescope and CCD camera and study variable stars or spot comets and supernovae by night and devour magazines by day. Thing is, I feel the same way about my hobbies -- I cannot imagine not drawing, or writing, or singing. The difference between my hobbies and my (future) profession is only one of talent and logic (I have a better shot at being a scientist than a fiction writer or an artist or a singer) and not of drive. I guess I am a Renaissance woman.
What I don't get is people who don't have a single thing like this. People who just drift through life, doing basically survival things -- working their hours at their job and coming home to veg in front of the TV until bedtime. I understand that not everyone can have their passion and their career as the same thing -- passion and talent don't always go together. But to have nothing they care about... I just don't get it.
