Scientists are not You and Me

Well, it seems that (influenced by Sean, I'm sure) Maureen Dowd has picked up on John McCain's twitter feed, and has placed yet another mocking stab at science in the mainstream press. ("Catfish and grape genetics"? Ha ha ha! "Promotion of astronomy"? Bwah!) The specific line from McCain's feed is the sarcastic "nothing says new jobs for average Americans like investing in astronomy". And I think this is the essence of why scientific projects continue to be held up for derision. Simply, most people assume science has absolutely nothing to do with them. Nobody blinks an eye at massive building projects that funnel money to construction workers, even though construction accounts for only 5% of the non-farm employment in the US. However, even though the "average american" is highly unlikely to work in construction, they at least imagine that they could. In contrast, science is perceived as something that is ...