I find myself rarely being able to keep up with my own research's scientific literature, much less the growing popular science literature, but over the weekend my brother was visiting from Vermont and on Sunday afternoon we went to Barnes and Noble on our way to the beach - and I picked up a copy
of SEED (Science is Culture APR/MAY 2006). The exact issue was Vol. 2 No. 4, with the cover article "State of the Planet 06 - What's It Going To Take?". So I sat at the beach on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon and started looking at the magazine - and found myself really liking it. It was definitely a slick publication - but I gotta say that I loved the "Featured Creatures" portfolio (featuring coccolithophores - hey, science is art, don't ya think?). And the website is interesting - and the news section lead me to read their article on "Oxygen and the Growth of Complex Organisms" which made me go to the Science article (Raymond, J. and D. Segre, 2006. The effect of oxygen on biochemical networks and the evolution of complex life. 311(5768):1764-1767) that I really need to download and read (How did I miss it? I've been trying to keep up with studies about oxygenation of the Earth's early atmosphere). Anyway, along the way I also found an article titled "The Secret Passions of Scientists" by Irene S. Levine which starts out:
"Face the bitter truth: Scientists have a reputation, undeserved of course, for being humorless, overly analytic, controlling, antisocial, competitive, arrogant, elitist, obsessive workaholics.
What’s that old adage? You can’t judge a book by its cover, and you can’t judge scientists by their lab coats, or by their day jobs. When you spend quality time with scientists outside the laboratory, rich personalities emerge, and you may be startled by what you discover. They can be just like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."
So, I guess a scientist has got to love a magazine that starts them on a journey that leads ultimately to an article on scientists being pretty interesting people after all...although I must ask Levine: Why were your examples of scientists with "secret passions" all men? What about Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde??
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