hello, Kristen… just found your site through Alarna. i like your story above…

thanks and warm regards ~San

You and I actually agree. I believe society at large has forgotten that scientists are also artists. Yet, if we are artists who happen to use paint, or story or song for art, we are not considered valuable. Few would discourage their child from becoming a chemist. No one says, “Great! A neuroscientist? Are you crazy? Why don’t you get a real job?” Yet if you are an actor or a dancer or a writer, then somehow you are a failure and a slacker. THAT is what is wrong with our society.

I like reading your posts. But I don’t agree on your distinction of art and science. In my opinion, good scientists are great artists in their field. They just use different tools. Not pens, not colors, not the violin, nor the clarinet, but they use microscopes, transistors, magnets, electron microscopes, or again pen and paper (theorists do that, I shouldn’t have discarded the pens for the scientists) they even use nothing (the vacuum) to build true artistic installations. You even used an Einstein quote and a picture of him in your post. And Einstein was not an artist (following the pure definition). Although I think he was an artist. A real master of his craft indeed! And those who have dug into quantum theory or general relativity or superconductivity or any other physics, math, biology, etc. topic will have noticed the beauty of the conceived models trying to reflect and describe parts of the nature and the universe. And those who have looked at e.g. the large detectors at LHC they will inevitably have been touched by their incredible size on one hand and the little details on the other side. What could be more artistic than to build an incredible machine which creates images of the things happening at the tiniest scale nature has to offer.

I even would go so far to say, that it cannot be a good scientist who is not an artist at the same time.

I’m quite sure, that you bought your ipad, android phone, nook, etc. because they are a real nice piece of artwork, not only because they serve your daily tasks. And behind that, there are a lot of technicians and scientists who used their tools to fiddle all the high tech into a shape which pleases your eye and your fingers and your ears. An art as well, don’t you think? 🙂

cheers
Peter