Recovering scientists discuss the impact of spending your formative years married to the life plan of a career in academia:
Most people don't understand that somebody who's really committed themself to science, they get this emotional attachment like a lot of people will have towards their political view. … It's really passionate, and you get angry or happy or sad, tied to this seemingly arbitrary thing.
Gabe Weatherhead, Crossing the Chasm Between Science and the Real World, Generational, Episode 023, 70Decibels.
This reminded me of a recent article in the Guardian: Scientists and their emotions: the highs ... and the lows
I am sometimes jealous of novelists and artists for whom sharing and explaining the emotional journey of a piece of work is celebrated (almost required). The lack of a natural forum for scientists to describe their emotions in their work can lead to the mistaken view that scientists are unemotional people. In my experience, this is very far from reality. In the working world of science, people spend a lot of time externalising often half-formed thoughts and probing new ideas. Scientists are men and women who are unafraid to question both themselves and one another openly and who have made a huge emotional investment in their work.
Dr Ewan Birney, Associate Director of the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Camebridge.
