2000 : WHAT IS TODAY'S MOST IMPORTANT UNREPORTED STORY?

pattie_maes's picture
Professor, MIT MediaLab; Program Head, MIT's Program in Media Arts and Sciences
What Scientific Research Is Really Like

The public still thinks of research as a very serious and lonely activity. The picture of a scientist that typically comes to mind is that of a person in labcoat hunched over heavy books, locked up in their ivory tower. The truth is that scientists are more like a group of uninhibited, curious kids at play. Maybe teenagers would be more into science if they had a more accurate picture of what research is like and realized that one way to avoid growing up is to become a scientist.