In his novel COSM Gregory Benford describes* four types of scientists -
- I want to know – ’Prying into Mother Nature’s secrets.’
- Theory predicts – Exploring what theory says ought to happen.
- This is what I do – ’Habit often rather mindless. More deeply, it means This is who I am.’
- A sweet experiment – Doing a well designed/executed experiment itself.**
What kind of scientist are you?
Footnotes
Gregory Benford is really writing about physicists (he’s a physicist himself) but the categories are basic enough they ought to apply to other fields.
Lest anyone think that computational biologists (my field) don’t do experiments – quibble about it, as I’m sure many will, but you can conduct ‘dry’ experiments on datasets. (Or at least I can wave my hands around a little here…)
If you’re a fan of hard science fiction and haven‘t read Gregory Benford’s work, do. His work is grounded on ideas taken from physics/astronomy/cosmology played out with strong lead characters. There’s a chat on the lablit forums opened by the author, with more thoughts elsewhere on the same forum. Reviews of COSM can be read at Suite101, goodreads and elsewhere.
* p33.
** It’s a bit harder to pick Gregory’s intentions on this one; this is my interpretation.
Other articles in Code for life:
What is your relationship with your research notebook?
Scientific article download costs
New academic visas for New Zealand
I would add a fifth: It’s useful. And so I’d clearly be a mix of 1 and 5.