What kind of scientist are you?
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
10 Responses to “What kind of scientist are you?”
I would add a fifth: It’s useful. And so I’d clearly be a mix of 1 and 5.
There are several ‘other’ things I thought about adding, but then I thought to wait and see what readers said 😉
One thing I thought add was to mention that Gregory’s list is really of those involved in research, as opposed to the 70%-odd that move out of academic. People industry for example might not easily relate to Gregory’s categories (?) There’s more, but I was hoping others might bring that to the comments.
This is a problem crying out for a solution – I’ll have a go
Interesting like any group of people there are various tribes, I am definitely trying to pry into mother natures secrets and also an experimenter.
Mother natures secrets prepare to have your mind blown.. This is so interesting, no straight lines, no squares, the helix and Pi..
Look at this .. http://www.youtube.com/user/TheRealVerbz
I am definitely of the “I want to know!!!” category. The beauty of prying into nature’s secrets is that while you’re finding one answer, you usually discover a multitude of other questions to pursue 🙂
Hi biochembelle,
Thanks you adding to this – now you’ve been approved you can comment with being held up.
I’ve got a fair bit of “I want to know†in me, too. More on that later maybe. While I’m writing, I put this up in part to see how people saw themselves in relation to what they do, an extension on the science careers articles I’ve written in the past.
I like your blog, too! I’m (now) a Southerner, of sorts. The part of the country I’m in is (somewhat melodramatically) referred to as ‘the Deep South’. (For whatever reason I still personally tend to think of the Deep South as further south again.)
Now I’ve got to get outside and patch up a few more weatherboards before winter starts to set in…
Via twitter drugmonkey wrote:
“4 the pinnacle of 3 which I use to pretend 2 to #NIHGrant rvwrs to cover up my real interest in 1â€
(For those that don’t like text-speak: “Category 4 is the pinnacle of category 3, which I use to pretend category 2 to NIH grant reviewers to cover up my real interest in category 1.â€)
Definitely a 1 here, but I would add to that a version of Waiology’s “it’s useful” – application of science to make the world a better place.
A while back I commented on a survey which looked at what motivates scientists and technologists in New Zealand which reflects some of the points mentioned above.
https://sciblogs.co.nz/molecular-matters/2011/10/11/reasons-to-become-a-scientist/
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