Comment devient‐on scientifique? (How to Become A Scientist)

Citation

Richardson, J. (2008), "Comment devient‐on scientifique? (How to Become A Scientist)", Foresight, Vol. 10 No. 5, pp. 68-68. https://doi.org/10.1108/14636680810918540

This little book is about assuring a supply of scientifically‐ and mathematically‐trained specialists for the future world of research. Although the text has a French audience in mind, its lessons are applicable in a good many other cultures – notably in developing countries where the opportunities for growing young researchers and technologists are often too limited by local economic conditions.

To celebrate the tricentenary of the birth of the natural taxonomist Buffon, physicist Pierre‐Gilles de Gennes asks (in the book's Preface) four questions bothering young people today. First, is science disliked? Next, is science misunderstood? After, is science badly taught? And last, Is science something alien to culture in general? (De Gennes, a Nobelist in 1991 and a first‐class popularizer of science, died prematurely in 2007).

Florence Guichard's book tries to answer these queries. It appears at a propitious moment in France when, as in Germany and elsewhere in the European Union, leaders are asking whence an adequate supply of scientists and engineers will come from within ageing populations. This, combined with a pressure in many countries to admit growing numbers of secondary‐school graduates to university, raises issues of finding new recruits for a technical education: a challenge critical for the future of many industrial democracies.

So Guichard, a publisher trained in the sciences, sets out to respond to physicist de Gennes' (and many others') interrogations. His questions prove to be doubly pertinent because in France, as elsewhere among modern societies, bright youngsters tend too often to avoid with a vengeance venturing to a scientific career. Ms Guichard's book is meant primarily to help boys and girls see their future in a different light.

A holistic education in primary and secondary schools is primordial, of course, calling for patient attention from teachers towards youngsters with some affinity for computing and the workings of nature. Personal acquaintance with a scientist may help set up role models for certain youths, as will visits to science museums, fairs, environmental exhibits, even laboratories when possible – as well as listening to radio or watching television programs meant to popularize discovery and innovation. “Science as a spectacle”, the author insists, “marks the memory”: “the beauty of a display and the pleasure of a game” most impress young children” (p. 51).

The author stresses the point that a young person's access to good popularization of science (pp. 67ff.) often spurs a youngster's interest in research as her or his life's work. She specifies at the same time that careers in science may not always pay as well as others. She falls somewhat short of the mark, however in making the bridge between science as intellectual inquisitiveness and technology as science's applications responding to societal needs. The latter implies taking career risks along the way, a hazard that many young French women and (especially) men are reluctant to gamble on.

Success, whether in scientific experiments or with the outcomes of life and livelihood, does require some risk. And taking such chances is endemically part of “how to become a scientist”.