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The Omni-Competence
Advertisers in this issue: Brimrose
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High Voltage Engineering Europa inside front cover International Scientific Instruments
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Vacuum Barrier Corporation
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In the February issue... Guest Editor Troy W. Barbée Jr.( Chemistry and Materials Sciences Department, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, focuses on multilayer materials: "Multilayer Optics for the Soft X-Ray and Extrême Ultraviolet," by Troy W. Barbée Jr. "Metastable Phase Formation in Thin Films and Multilayers," by Bruce M. Clemens and Robert Sinclair, Stanford University. "Artificially Layered Superconductors," by Ivan K. Schuller and Julio Guimpel, Physics Department, University of Califomia, San Diego; and Yvan Bruynseraede, Katholieke Universiteit-Leuven, Belgium.
"Oh, You're a scientist! You must be very smart ! Will you explain to my kids why the sky is blue. You know, they're always asking thèse questions that I can't really answer. I guess they think parents know everything. Isn't that cute!" "Kids, the sky is blue because when the light from the sun (which has ail the colors mixed up in it) hits the air around the earth, some colors.. .the bluer colors.. .get scattered.. .uh,: I mean get bumped.. .out of the direction they were going and wind up down hère where we see them." "But why does blue get bumped?" "That's a very good question. Why don't you ask one of your parents." They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. They should also hâve said that a lot of narrow knowledge gives a misleading impression. It is the illusion of global compétence. Scientists and engineers give the impression of being very knowledgeable. If they hâve earned advanced degrees, had postdoctoral training, and taken sabbaticals, they appear to hâve spent ail their time in school. Therefore, they must be absolutely brilliant about everything. Of course, this sounds silly to those of us who are the scientists and engineers. We are constantly encountering our own limits as we try to do something new, or even remember something old. But the lay public, believe it or not, are often unreasonably impressed by us. We may not be asked for a légal or médical opinion—those distinctions of field are clear, probably because people use the services of lawyers and doctors directly. But the rest of us are lumped together into a perceptual technical melting pot. Aside from the occasional embarrassment when you can't explain plate tectonics, the precession of the perihelion of Mercury, or the différence between PCBs and PVC to your next door neighbor, what harm is there in being perceived as omni-competent? Well, the image of science gets a little tarnished when so-called experts disagree in public. We try to explain that it is in the nature of science to challenge assumptions and debate alternatives until the cows corne home. True enough! However> when
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