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What RealScientists DO
by a RealScientist/Vindibunny
What is a Research Scientist?
Do you want to know why I became a research scientist? It certainly isn’t for the money. What? Did you think that a research scientist was rolling in the money? Just because Adam Kane is portrayed as such, it isn’t the truth. I have a graduate degree from a name brand university, a couple of dozen publications, a few patents and patents pending to my name. You would think that would be a pretty good resume. But I drive an eight year old car, try my best to pay the bills, and I certainly don’t live in a Sanctuary type environment.
Scientists perform the work that they do because they enjoy science. They enjoy the thrill of the hunt, the reward of discovering something new. If scientist wanted to get rich he would have spent the three years in school needed for a M.B.A. and saved himself the trouble of at least five years of school and lab slave labor plus writing out that darn thesis of original research. The movie Twister had it wrong with the line “He's in it for the money, not the science.” No one ever decided to become a scientist for the money. They always become a scientist for the science.
The pride that a scientist takes in his work is apparent. An experiment performed properly provides results that are a reward by themselves. They take time in their experimental design – not just mix a few things together with a disposable pipette. Meaningful results give the scientist a picture or insight of the problem that they are tackling. Even an experimental failure is useful (as long as the experiment was performed properly), because you then know that that experimental direction or techniques are not useful to obtain your goal. All data is good data.
This is where the portrayal of Adam Kane differs from what a real scientist truly is. Adam certainly seems to enjoy science…but is he really playing with his chemistry set to discover the answers to the problems that have occurred? His history suggests otherwise. A true visionary would not have performed the same experiment time and time again, only to have the result be the same failure each time.
Yes – if his true intention were to cure his subjects of disease, he would have stopped after studying the results from the first group of subjects. A cure that causes extreme side effects and a deterioration of their DNA is not much of a cure. A scientist interested in solving the problem of the disease would stop there, determine that this direction was not appropriate, and try something else. Now, if Adam’s intention was to create the extreme side effects, then he would be back in the scientist category – but perhaps not the type of scientist portrayed by the show.
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