Being a scientist

The Daily Transcript: The Worst Parts of Scientific Life Are scientists like everybody else? Of course they are, but what is it like to be one? Like any specialist profession (lawyer, accountant), how can people outside the specialism understand what it is like to be one? The post I've linked to here, by Alex Palazzo of The Daily Transcript blog, sums it up excellently. His entry is a list, but it is a thoughtful list, and you certainly don't have to be a scientist (as I was) or a camp-follower (as I am now) to 'get' it. Alex's post counters the popular misconception of scientists as "men in white coats" or "unhinged megalomaniacs". Maybe one day we'll routinely read books or see films in which scientists are characters, not cliches.