I was planning to write this letter as a screed against the anti-popular strain alive in the body scientific-against the reflexive tendency of that community to cast a taint upon any member who would deign to discuss his (or even worse, her) work in front of a television camera or in the pages of any periodical whose readership requirements do not include the possession of a Ph.D. Popularity corrupts, such thinking goes, and therefore any attempt to reach a popular audience is evidence of dilettantism and lack of scholarly depth. And-I planned to write-in a time and a country where superstition, ignorance and skepticism toward the scientific enterprise seem ever more ascendant, it's particularly tragic that science is often seen to punish those of its practitioners who attempt to engage the broader population. How righteous I was going to be.
展开▼
