Remember when you were in Jr. High and 'geek' connoted staying in every Friday night sans date and maybe a little Dungeons and Dragons on the side? Well 'Science Geek' (SG) in the adult world - if by that you imply folks at universities, academic writers, biotech researchers, and so on - we're a whole different breed altogether! So I dedicate this post to all those who claim they can't relate to scientists or consider environmentalism synonymous with crunchy hippiedom (sure there are a few of those among us and we love their vegan company). While most of my friends in the real world complain about jobs, bosses, commute, and long hours, we SGs breeze through our days in pursuit of why. (CSI fans eat your heart out!) We search for answers to how things came to be the way they are by asking what physical laws govern this planet and beyond. How long will humans persist and when our time is up... does it really matter at all in the grand cosmic scheme anyway? We get to dig through fossils and stare and microscopic life just as intricate and fascinating as our own. We travel everywhere - to places surpassing anything Hollywood can possibly dream up on film. SGs search for patterns in nature and ponder what can really be done about the mess we're making on this incarnation of planet earth. And best of all, we have a heck of a lot of fun doing it! Everyday is different since whimsy and curiosity generally dictate direction. We chose the road less traveled and some say academic pursuit is a means to prolong adolescence. Sure, we poke around teaching, speaking to policymakers, and occasionally discovering something that the masses find worth celebrating... but somewhere along the way, we also often develop a alternative perspective of scale by recognizing that it's not necessary to take everything (including ourselves) very seriously all the time. Important to remember in a society driven by mass media hysteria for prime time ratings. The long weekend found me adventuring all about the Research Triangle with my SG counterparts in arguably the greatest science hub on the planet. Like Shop Boyz, we partied like rock stars. SGs work hard, play hard, and are pretty darn good at recognizing the value in celebrating life everyday. It's Hip to be a Science Geek! And as for me, I'm having one heck of ride... Scenes from the Research Triangle - Labor Day Weekend 2007
