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SCIENTIST 



in filling out the map of the heavens. By and large, how- 

 ever, modern science requires so much expensive apparatus, 

 so much technical assistance, and such intense application 

 to keep up with the rapidly moving frontier of knowledge, 

 that the overwhelming majority of contributors must work 

 as parts of large organizations. Organizations necessarily 

 tend to build up sets of rules and regulations, and one of 

 the rules for admission into a full-fledged participation in 

 science is an advanced degree. This regulation is not really 

 so arbitrary as it may sound, since in fact it now requires 

 considerable experience to equip one for independent work 

 in most branches of modern science. For one thing, it takes 

 several years even to get a clear idea of what already has 

 been done in one's chosen specialty. Equally important is 

 the mastering of observational techniques. As I have pointed 

 out before, science progresses by developing more and more 

 refined ways of looking at things, and it takes a lot of time 

 and effort to learn the manipulations involved and to de- 

 velop the judgment necessary for interpreting the results. 



A person who for one reason or another cannot enter 

 graduate school immediately after college, or even go to 

 college immediately after high school, need not be dis- 

 couraged about the possibility of doing scientific work and 

 becoming a respected member of the scientific community. 

 As pointed out in Chapter 5, a great many people are 

 employed in nonprofessional positions in scientific labora- 

 tories. Even though they rarely reach the stage of design- 

 ing their own experimental program in toto, they often find 

 opportunities to contribute to the improvement of tech- 

 niques and the refinement of details. They thus have a sense 

 of participating in the creative spirit which is characteristic 

 of all good laboratories. In any case, a good technician 

 can always win the respect of his colleagues both above 

 and below him on the laboratory team by his mastery of 



