Re: The Science Generations

[Jamie Lawrence <foodie@netcom.com>]

At 8:44 PM -0800 on 12/5/96, Timothy C. May wrote:

> I'm not sure if Gilbert chemistry sets went off the market for liablity
> reasons, or for "lack of interest." The "4-banger" I had in 1961,
> supplemented with varius Bunsen burners, arc furnaces, Erlenmayer flasks,
> and whatnot, was amazing for its time. (And not terribly expensive, in case
> some of the "social democrats" on this list are thinking I lived a

I can provide a datapoint here. I started getting into chemistry
when I was about 8, which was in 1981. I can't remember the brand
name, but my first (and last, actually) 'value-added' kit was
designed to keep kids from doing anything that could be
dangerous, a fact tactfully explained on the packaging.

To solve that problem, my mother gave me an Edmund Scientific
catalog and a (severely limited, given my family background)
budget for whatever I wanted.

I ordered direct for supplies from then on.

> * Generation 3: The computer generation. The 1970s-80s, who grew up with
> Commodore PETs and Apple IIs (and some later machines). These are the "new
> pioneers"  of the 1980s-90s, the Marc Andreesens and the like.

I would have killed for a computer growing up. I finally got one,
a Mac IIsi, when I went to college (I'm still paying off the
loan I took out to buy it. I gave it to someone when I got another
machine, and it will, if I'm not mistaken, retrieve this message
the next time a certain someone checks mail. That helps
me overlook the fact that I still owe more than the machine
is worth... I learned my lesson.)

There are many in my age bracket who play with non-computer
science; the relevent fact being that whatever the field
of study (I personally know folks doing research in bio, physics,
chemistry and economics (arguably not a science ;)), they all use
computers as a daily part of their work. You can run, but you can't
hide.

> (I could imagine expanding this to 4 or 5 "generations," but I think you
> get the point. Being 44 years old, and almost 45, I claim no knowledge
> about what the "latest generation" is all about. Maybe it's the "Beavis and
> Butthead" generation...I don't know.)

Yes, many of us are devoted to the study of Brute Force Insect
Dissection.

-j

> --Tim May

--
"I'm about to, or I am going to, die. Either expression is used."
                - Last words of Dominique Bouhours, Grammarian, 1702
____________________________________________________________________
Jamie Lawrence                                     foodie@netcom.com