Geopolitical Scientific Interest.

[Thales]

Being an 'international' science forum I was wondering what people's lives as scientists(or at least overly inquistive at times) have been like.

Is science and technology highly valued in your community/country? To what extent would you consider your govt/communities to be overall a help or hinderance?

 

I'm curious because down here and oz we are not exactly admonished and it does not pay well to give your life to the pursuit of knowledge. Pursuing dollars is much more profitable but I fear it 'dumbs' society down to be so materialitic.

 

Do other people occasionally have their talent slandered upon because people are afraid of what they don't understand. IMO it has a alot to do with money. Failure is not an option, people are so afraid of failing they focus so narrowly on filling some 'niech' in society that their potential is limited by the linearity of their lives, the lack of new challenges.

 

With so many people (and many more on the way) isn't it about time we started valueing science more like in times gone by. Instead of acting like a huge 'parallel' processor, more people should add to the wealth of knowledge not just our ability to crunch the numbers of the known.

 

 

[/Rant]

[LucidDreamer]

Well, I haven’t left the academic world yet so I don't have firsthand knowledge of what the business world is like. I do know that in America grad students and Ph.D. students are used as educated slave labor. But I do have some friends with chemistry/biochem masters degrees that were hired right our of grad school with big starting salaries.

 

For the most part I think creativity and original thinking are encouraged as long as it is somewhat grounded in scientific fundamentals. Every new idea is going to be criticized but I think that this criticism serves a vital function. It prunes away the bad theories and forces us to refine our ideas. People like Einstein and Newton came up with brilliant, radical new ideas that changed our world by using their creativity. However, both of these men and nearly every scientific genius were very knowledgeable of their day's science that led to their new ideas. In order to be brilliant you have to be creative and knowledgeable. Scientists need other scientist to evaluate their ideas because it is part of the education.

 

I definitely see your point though. I feel that to some extent in college we are taught how to be drone workers. It seems like some of professors don't care whether you have an original thought as long as you know how to operate the equipment.

[Solaris]

Here in Romania, The Scientific Comunity is pretty small, and low valued. The problem here is that young people that have a lot of brain in the head, so to speak emigrate in countries like USA or UK, because they are better paid. The goverment should put more money in the Science and Development section, but it doesn't. Here if u are dumb or a muscleman you are considered to be "cool". The "fist" law predominates on the streets. Don't think that we fight all , but here THE STRONGEST SURVIVES! Usualy the physicaly strongest. The only ememy is ourselves!