People—especially smart people—often fall prone to the conceit that, if they just had the time, they could totally write a novel, perform standup comedy or run for local office. After all, these jobs require only innately human skills like being able to tell a story, tell a joke or relate well to strangers. Curious, then, that some of these same people—smart people—tend to view science in the exact opposite way. Scientists to them seem to exist in a world far removed from everyday life, so much so that even heartfelt efforts to bridge the divide between university campuses and the broader world just leave people on both sides feeling alienated.
It was not always this way, and, in fact, it is not this way now. Science existed before universities; and tinkerers, inventors and private hobbyists have been responsible for many major discoveries over the centuries. British biologist Thomas Henry Huxley famously made the case that we are all scientists in his 1863 essay...
Patchen Barss writes about science, research and emerging ideas. His book, The Erotic Engine: How Pornography Has Powered Mass Communication, from Gutenberg to Google, was published by Penguin Random House in 2010.
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