The Quest

If any student comes to me and says he wants to be useful to mankind and go into research to alleviate human suffering, I advise him to go into charity instead. Research wants real egotists who seek their own pleasure and satisfaction, but find it in solving the puzzles of nature.
Albert Szent-Györgi (1893-1986) U. S. biochemist.

I was talking to one of my friends (a conservationalist) and she during our conversation said casually, "Well, it feels good at the end of the day that I'm doing something to save the world". Pshaw! We are not saving the world, we're not saving animals, we're not saving humanity, we're not saving anything. Maybe we're temporarily slowing some process down. Holding things back for a bit. That's about it. Science has never been about humanity. Science has masqueraded under the guise of serving humanity cos otherwise humanity won't accept it. And science needs humanity for all the vulgar gold it can provide. Cynical? Realistic, I prefer to think. The truth of the matter is that few scientists think about humanity. Sure, if in the course of my work I find something that I can sell to humans, yayyy! good for everyone involved and more money in the coffers. If I find out ten years down the line that the medicine I thought was going to save lives actually ended up causing more puzzling and deeper problems, oops! back to the drawing board with a sheepish smile. That's why I decided right at the beginning to take the coward's way out. I decided to work on yeast models. Nothing I do can directly affect human beings or any sort of living beings (yeast cells are essentially non living) for atleast three quarters of a century or so, by which time chances are we'd have nuked or smoked or poisoned ourselves to death anyway!

Why this obscure rant about scientists? Cos I'm fed up with people asking me what I do and then on hearing that I'm a scientist, smiling benignly at me (the visual equivalent of a pat on the head) and saying something inane like "Trying to find a cure for cancer?". No, I'm NOT trying to find a cure for cancer, or Down Syndrome, or Alzheimers or any other disease you might have heard of. I don't want to find a cure to any disease because lately I've had a lot of questions about the soundness of finding cures for diseases. I'm battling my own demons, and no I don't want to be the Deliverer of Mankind, thank you very much. I'm working on an obscure stretch of DNA, trying to find answers to even more obscure questions cos I find it fulfilling and intellectually stimulating and FUN. End of Story.