+denison6482 Oh absolutely. But remember - they are the top 1%
of the top 1% of the top 1%. Feynman and Einstein and Newton are
especially high up in my minds; all three theoretical physicists
- and Feynman gets extra credit for being on the Manhattan
Project (which wouldn't have been there if Einstein hadn't
written to the President about the power of Chain Reactions with
regards to an Atomic Bomb due to the urging of one of Einsteins
young scientist friends who figured out chain reactions (whose
name I forget and its a shame - because Einstein gets credit but
really it was the other guy who figured it out :/ ) And that's
the thing: There have been millions of millions of scientists.
We have our heros - they are equivilant to Saints in the
religious world but in Science they are the heros - held up as
positive examples of the BEST the system has to offer. But
that's the trouble of ideals vs reality: We can get caught up in
the mystique of the ideals very easily - in a world where only
the best exist... and forget that there is a messier reality
right here that doesn't conform to the high ideals. We need the
high ideals for inspiration - especially when times get tough.
But for an honest, real view of the way things are, we need both
the giants and the regulars. And science is more than physics.
Physics is the most successful of the sciences because
mathematics works well with it and math is easy to work with.
But biology for example doesn't comform well to math. Messier
Who's the last biology hero you can think of? It doesn't get the
Press that physics does. Or other sciences. Physics acts as if
it IS science but it's not all about physics. It's just one part
of a very large set of approaches to conquer knowledge of
reality. It has the best PR. Not putting it down at all - just
reminding that there's millions of struggling scientists who try
their best but rarely get credit outside of their circles,
because everybody is focused on the 'big guys'.
