Since the project is still on hold, I’m reading papers (as if!). I’ve said that enough times already, so I’m going to shift track to things that are happening to me in college.
I’m a reporter with the college newsletter. My beat is “celebrity interviews”. Now, I don’t mean I’m the typical celebrity interviewer who has loads of contacts and blends seamlessly with the Page 3 crowd (ha ha!) Please, I’m doing a grad course in biology. I interview scientists who visit our college (we have a fair number of visitors) Yes, I know. I wear my geekiness on my sleeve.
So far, I’ve interviewed an evolutionary biologist from Bangalore and an astrophysicist from Cambridge. And one thing I’ve found in both of them is that they have a way with words. They aren’t great orators, mind you (I nearly fell asleep during both their lectures). But when you’re talking to them on a one-to-one basis, they seem very willing to talk and they put you at ease very quickly.
I don’t know. Maybe it’s just that I’ve been meeting the wrong kind of people so far, but I’ve hardly ever seen any scientist who lives up to the stereotype of a hard-nosed, hawk-eyed brainiac who’s miserly with both words and time. The kind of person who you can bet spent far too much time with his textbooks as a young adult, got picked last during games… you get the drift. The only one who are remotely like that are the ones who spent a lot of time in academia, and less in active research.
I guess this underscores two things. Scientific research today requires a great deal of cooperation. And the only way you can get other people to cooperate is by coming across as a decent human being. Besides proving that you can do solid research yourself.
The other thing is that scientists are in fact really cool people inside. Approachable, laidback and capable of frivolous conversation if need be (some of my questions are kinda frivolous. I try to maintain the “human interest” aspect, whatever that is). For instance, every professor in the bio department, up to and including the HoD, wears jeans to work. You’d only see that in a start-up, or in some kind of a media establishment. Makes me feel a whole lot better about what I’m getting into.
And hey if we scientists don’t call ourselves cool, who will?
3 comments:
You know, you're so right! I think ours is the only field where people take time off whatever they're doing to explain things to you. You rarely need an appointment. All you have to do is barge into any scientist's office anywhere on the planet and say "I don't understand this. Explain it" and they will. If they really are busy, they'll ask you to come back in sometime. But never will they not explain what they know to you. And they all love being approached and asked questions.
But I guess part of the reason for that is they get to do so little actual physics(in my case) between conferences and classes(it's boring teachin the same thing over and over again, I imagine) and drafting funds that when a student approaches them with a doubt/problem they consider it a break from the robotic work. It's a duty they enjoy. Why will they say no?
Besides, who doesn't love talking about what they do?
the iit stint confirmed what you're trying to say here. people were pretty laidback and we could always run to the HOD with the lamest doubts. it convinced me that scientists are human, too :)
@ chitra: Yeah, it's unfortunate that scientists in general, and those in academia in particular get very little time to do actual research. the kinds of administrative hassles they go through are so tear-your-hair-out frustrating.
And of course people love talking about what they do. That's why I started this blog!
@ pseudo: Of course they're human. We're all living proof of that fact! :D
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