In praise of Scientists, Technologists, Engineers and Mathematicians....

[Fab Foodie]

I thought we'd had enough of experts

Only Odious Gove...

 

[Fab Foodie]

STEM is seriously undervalued in the UK. I guess we have a very few MPs with a STEM background.

Thatcher was a Food Scientist...just saying....

 

[Archie_tect]

Oi......what about the philosophers? By far the most important academic discipline. Without them we wouldn’t know what was right, what was knowledge and how we should live our lives.

"I'm pink therefore I'm Spam"... every time.

 

[Fab Foodie]

I'm afraid I disagree....I have a science background (Biochemistry) but I think the arts, humanities and philosophy can teach us huge amounts about being a better human being.....which is exactly what our MPs need.

I think we need governments made of members from all backgrounds. What we need less of is Etonians and Oxbridge PPE grads...

 

[roubaixtuesday]

The behaviour of MPs with STEM backgrounds does not necessarily inspire an urge to increase their number.

I present you Graham Stringer, Chemistry BSc and climate change denier.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Stringer

 

[Ajax Bay]

So much research and development investment has been squandered in the name of austerity.

I don't think you actually mean this, Archie. Why would people choose to invest in R&D (to the point of 'squandering' resources) relying on austerity as a factor in the investment decision?

 

[Profpointy]

The behaviour of MPs with STEM backgrounds does not necessarily inspire an urge to increase their number.

I present you Graham Stringer, Chemistry BSc and climate change denier.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Stringer

Even Linus Pauling, Nobel Laureate and pioneer of the modern understanding the chemical bond, a truly important figure in science, and incidentally also the recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize became an outspoken advocate of utter fruitloopery concerning vitamin C curing all sorts of diseases, so even genuinely top notch scientists can totally lose their way

 

[winjim]

Even Linus Pauling, Nobel Laureate and pioneer of the modern understanding the chemical bond, a truly important figure in science, and incidentally also the recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize became an outspoken advocate of utter fruitloopery concerning vitamin C curing all sorts of diseases, so even genuinely top notch scientists can totally lose their way

Acid casualty, surfer dude, inventor of PCR and Nobel laureate Kary Mullis was a climate change denier iirc.

I've got a lot of love for Pauling but he did go a bit bonkers.

 

[Yellow Fang]

The engineering of telescopes, optical, radio, and latterly gravitational, has driven the science and vice versa. Engineer has its root in the French ingenieur, one who is ingenious, a far cry from the UK conception of engineer as maintenance technician. Which is not at all to disparage the technician, an equally important and valuable role, but quite different from an engineer.

From time to time you hear engineers complaining that the term 'engineer' does not have the cachet of other professions; that it is not as respected as it is in Europe, and that the term should be reserved for people with degrees who develop new technology. If that's the case, they should think of a new poncy term in my opinion, because the work 'engineer' as been used for a long time to describe people who got their hands dirty fixing and operating stuff. There is a chapter in Tess of the d'Urbervilles, where a Northerner who just described himself as an 'engineer' arrived on the farm with a threshing machine. I am sure he was more an operator/repair man. All those Scots who maintained steamship engines were engineers. All those people who fix cars are engineers.

The thing I liked most about the engineering profession was that during the Industrial Revolution any one with talent and drive could become an engineer. You did not need a university degree, know Latin, or come from a certain social background. Some of the greatest 19th Century engineers had next to no education and came from dirt poor backgrounds.

 

[Archie_tect]

I don't think you actually mean this, Archie. Why would people choose to invest in R&D (to the point of 'squandering' resources) relying on austerity as a factor in the investment decision?

Ah, wrong word, the money hasn't been squandered - it never got spent is what I meant... you have a clear-sighted habit of correcting me Ajax! Sorry.

 

[Rocky]

Ah, wrong word, the money hasn't been squandered - it never got spent is what I meant... you have a clear-sighted habit of correcting me Ajax! Sorry.

Funny how you never hear people say we need more architects

 

[Archie_tect]

That's because there are only so many to go round and once you've used one it can't be used again... bit like fireworks they are spent- drained of their creative energy.

 

[Rocky]

That's because there are only so many to go round and once you've used one it can't be used again... bit like fireworks they are spent- drained of their creative energy.

At the end of your career, you light the blue touch paper and retire

 

[Archie_tect]

Th excitement of lighting the fuse and waiting for the explosion, followed some time later by the corresponding fall-out.

 

[itboffin]

I can tell you from my own involvement this year that keeping on top of the technology capacity requirement this year has been the most demanding, exhausting and rewarding year of my 32 years in IT, upgrading aging systems with no downtime in many case to accommodate a 700% increase in demand has all but burnt out everyone in my company and all of our partners, Google Microsoft and AWS. I'm still on call and wont get a break until Feb. but at least this time its not for the profit of big retail its for all of us.

Living for a better 2021