Insights from a Scientist with a Poet’s Soul
JD Pernoste, balancing at the center of science, art, music, and spirit
For those of you who are not scientists and don’t know any scientists, have you ever wondered what it’s like to be one?
I remember as a young man what I thought about science. The whole concept, learning, careful research, and figuring things out just seemed so exciting. On top of that, I believed there was a world full of scientists who were objective and brilliant and working together to figure out the world to cure diseases and launch people into space.
Of course, some of you may have grown up thinking more about Victor Frankenstein and mad scientists.
In some ways, when I was young, I wanted to be Star Trek’s Spock, intelligent, rational, unaffected by emotion, and perfectly objective in all things. I wanted to understand things and maybe discover or invent novel treatments, devices, or ideas. As in many things in life, the expectation was not the complete reality. Wherever there are people, there are egos, politics, and people hungry for power. But I don’t want to focus on that. (I’ll save that fascinating exploration for another time). There are also a lot of very hard-working and extremely intelligent people doing research for all the right reasons and in the right ways, and I found my way to being successful with my own unique approaches.
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