• Question: do you think "scientists" are apreciated as much as they should?

    Asked by courtneymullane to Ben, Dave, Ed, Sam, Susana on 19 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Benjamin Hall

      Benjamin Hall answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      Probably not.

      Maybe I’m quite accutely aware of this because GM crops are integral to my work but I feel that there’s some strange perception of scientists as crazy, out to destroy the earth deliberately and completely unaware of human safety. It’s just not true! Most of us are scientsits because we want to understand things and try to make the world a better place.

      I also think that for the amount of effort it takes to be a scientist the pay could be a little higher. But none of us do it for the money.

    • Photo: David Briggs

      David Briggs answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      Probably not. But then I’m biased 🙂

      I think that pay for scientists is pretty rubbish, given the amount of training we do to get to become scientists, and I think that certain sections of society are really anti-science, either because they don’t understand it or it scares them.

      Engagement stuff like I’m a Scientist get me out of here is important as it hopefully demonstrates that scientists are just normal people, and science is not something to be worried about or afraid of. It can make life better for all of us.

    • Photo: Susana Teixeira

      Susana Teixeira answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      I think there is very little trust in the value of the work we do, and our intentions.

      I’ll tell you a story that I think shows this… When a friend of mine met someone and told them he was a scientist, he used to get raised eyebrows, and wows and questions about what exactly does he do, etc.
      A few years ago he went on to work in management and quit Science. When people now ask about his job, he simply says “I work at DHL”. They still have no clue what he does, but now nobody asks any further questions.

      So this is why I’m in the Crystallography zone, to do my bit by showing at least some of you that we are normal people, willing to work hard to do something good.

    • Photo: Sam Horrell

      Sam Horrell answered on 20 Jun 2013:

      We get a lot of flack from certain groups of people like the deeply religious and animal rights activists, but overall I think people realise what life would be like without science and appreciate the advances that have been made.

      It is amazing how people will demand so much from a scientist to prove what they believe to be true. So much is taken on blind faith but with science we have to fight tooth and nail for people to believe us at times.

    • Photo: Ed Lowe

      Ed Lowe answered on 20 Jun 2013:

      It depends who you ask, and what you mean by appreciation.

      Scientists tend to form quite tight communities where we spend an enormous proportion of our time talking to other scientists. In my experience, most communities of this sort (teachers would be another example…) tend to feel under-appreciated by outsiders.

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