Science: Scientists at Home

• Share

What is the typical U.S. scientist like? In the current Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Dr. Richard L. Meier, onetime executive secretary of the Federation of American Scientists, tries his hand at cataloguing his colleagues. Items:

¶Chemists come mainly from "the lower middle class ... are seldom rebels. [Their] politics are usually a non-violent conservatism." For recreation, they enjoy listening to music, are "inclined to the classics . . . want more melody and color and less counterpoint . . . Their tastes in home decoration are definitely middle-brow."

¶Physicists are "by nature politically radical." In music, they "show a strong preference for Bach [although] some experimental physicists will go so modern as to embrace Beethoven."

¶Engineers are "mostly apolitical." They "try to accommodate themselves to their surroundings . . . will gradually come to like Gershwin and Offenbach . . . The best minds among them reserve an hour a week or so for some private effort . . . modern poetry, ancient history, or the anthropology of exotic places."

Scientists who object to some of Author Meier's generalizations should have no trouble producing exceptions—e.g., Philadelphia Chemist Harry Gold and Manhattan Engineer Julius Rosenberg,who passed U.S. atomic secrets to the spy ring of which British Physicist Klaus Fuchs was the most notorious member.