4 



Kinds of Scientists 



As WE FOUND IN THE LAST CHAPTER, ALL SCIENCE IS 



characterized in part by close observation of isolated de- 

 tails of what later is made into a large, comprehensive 

 picture. The techniques for observing different sorts of 

 details vary enormously. It is this fact that has led to 

 specialization, that emphasis on knowing more and more 

 about less and less, which is thought to be so characteristic 

 of the scientific age. 



As I will try to show later, the separate paths of scien- 

 tific specialization have a paradoxical way of converging 

 back onto a final common path, a phenomenon which 

 is one of the encouraging but insufficiently recognized 

 features of modern scientific development. In practice, 

 however, anyone entering science must still do so along 

 one of the fairly well beaten tracks. 



In the first instance, specialties in science seem to have 

 arisen for much the same reason that specialties arose in 

 the arts and crafts during the medieval period. Just as 

 carpenters were people who knew what to do with ham- 

 mers and chisels, anatomists were scientists (really physi- 

 cians) who were good with scalpels and scissors. Galileo 

 and even Leonardo were employed as engineers, a pro- 

 fession which naturally turned their attention to mechanical 

 problems and investigation into the strength of materials. 



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