[aruanan]

Aw, man, your depiction of scientists as self interested, paycheck guarding mercenaries has really blown my perfect, shining, disattached, PBS style image of these people.

Aside from perfect and shining, how disattached do I seem? ;-} As far as intelligence goes, most are in the very top percentiles of society. As far as motives go, they're just like everyone else: there are a few really, really good, a few really, really bad,* and all the rest move back and forth to varying degrees between complete altruism and total selfishness.

*A graduate student in my lab told me that a visiting scientist who has an up-and-coming, really hot lab in California was trying to chat up the student's interest in going to do a post-doc with him after graduating. The student said he was interested until the guy told him that in a few years, "We're gonna f--king dominate." The student is more interested in science as a means of finding out more about the world. The visiting scientist appeared to be more interested in using science as a means of self-promotion and power. From what he told me, this guy is setting himself up to be the withered bitter old fart mentioned in the previous post lamenting about the possibility that truth could undermine his career.

[ovrtaxt]

As far as motives go, they're just like everyone else: there are a few really, really good, a few really, really bad,* and all the rest move back and forth to varying degrees between complete altruism and total selfishness.

Your truthfulness is much appreciated. I see way too much self importance out there, whether it's the scientific community, the media, (politicians are the worst), or the hollywood/artsy/style crowd. As someone who's not easily intimidated by the intelligence or the position of others, I usually find it humorous.

Thanks for the injection of perspective. :0)