Comments on: $400K federally-funded nano-comedy film available http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=2223 examining transformative technology Wed, 03 Apr 2013 18:23:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 By: Anonymous http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=2223#comment-10147 Anonymous Fri, 05 May 2006 18:33:28 +0000 http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=2223#comment-10147 No, not a waste of money at all. Science as a whole has a problem. Image! Ask the average Joe Soap to name a famous scientist and if you are lucky you will get Einstein. The image conjured up of Einstein is of when he was an old man with scraggy grey hair, etc. This was not when he did his greatest work; He came up with his theories while he was a young man. Yet, we have this stereotypical image of scientists being old, male and having crazy unkempt hair, beards and wearing glasses. To put it in blunt terms, science is not sexy! The general public have a vision of scientists working away in their labs, on issues that have absolutely no relevance to their daily lives. If however, science can be explained simply, with the emphasis on real world applications, people become interested, and want to participate. Then, everyone benefits. I work in the field of nanotechnology, but also learned something for the movie. Ivan Schuller’s efforts should be applauded! No, not a waste of money at all. Science as a whole has a problem. Image! Ask the average Joe Soap to name a famous scientist and if you are lucky you will get Einstein. The image conjured up of Einstein is of when he was an old man with scraggy grey hair, etc. This was not when he did his greatest work; He came up with his theories while he was a young man. Yet, we have this stereotypical image of scientists being old, male and having crazy unkempt hair, beards and wearing glasses. To put it in blunt terms, science is not sexy!

The general public have a vision of scientists working away in their labs, on issues that have absolutely no relevance to their daily lives. If however, science can be explained simply, with the emphasis on real world applications, people become interested, and want to participate. Then, everyone benefits. I work in the field of nanotechnology, but also learned something for the movie. Ivan Schuller’s efforts should be applauded!

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