IMS_Blog

Back when I was quite a bit younger than I am now I was arguably more imaginative, or naive—or stupid if you wish to be unkind—and in moments of ideal wonder pondered if there was a big secret. I was always interested in science, and in some respects science has this great cloak of seeming to know all, and has its own secret language and all the other things that make science communication difficult for the brave souls which try it. So I occasionally wondered, in no great seriousness, if there were some great secret that was imparted to the priesthood of science once you rose high enough. Not so much “there is (or isn’t) a god” but maybe “here’s what the aliens told us”. Because I was quite young and hadn’t seen the writhing insides of academia the natural place for that to occur seemed to be when one was elevated to the magical ranks of the all powerful and, to youthful eyes at least, rare doctorhood.