9 



Graduate School 



The normal and now just about the universal way 

 to qualify as a professional scientist is to procure an ad- 

 vanced degree from a graduate school. Ordinarily this 

 degree will be a Ph.D. or a doctorate in science. Some 

 biological scientists attend medical school and become 

 doctors of medicine, but they will ordinarily need to do 

 two or three additional years in postgraduate research 

 before being recognized as fully qualified scientists. Some 

 of them will use these two or three extra years to pile a 

 Ph.D. on top of an M.D.; others will not worry about this 

 additional formality. 



It is a little sad that becoming a scientist is now so 

 regimented. In a way it would be much nicer if any reason- 

 ably intelligent and curious person could gain recognition 

 for carefully performed observations bearing on some ques- 

 tion of significance. As we have seen, science actually de- 

 veloped largely as an avocation pursued by people who 

 actually supported themselves in other ways. It is still 

 possible for the talented amateur to contribute to science 

 and a certain number still do. An occasional new species 

 of birds may be named for an amateur bird watcher, and 

 there is quite a large group organized to provide coordi- 

 nated observations on bird migration. There is also a so- 

 ciety of amateur astronomers which has been very helpful 



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