Two Cultures?

In 1959 C.P. Snow announced that there are "Two Cultures" of the modern world: one of the Sciences and one of the Humanities. This division shapes what we study in school, the sorts of things we feel comfortable working on, and is crystallized in the undying notion that a scientist is some socially awkward nerd obsessed with frigid objectivity and that the humanist is some champion of sensuality, justice, and self-expression. While my characterization is hard and fast, it is not bullshit. What is bullshit is the way we tow lines as if they were set in stone.

This summer I have set out to learn as much as I can about the history of science. If I take the shallow vision of the modern academy the scientists are raiding the humanist's tower, but the shallow vision is, well shallow. I need not fear that other culture of the scientist, I need to fear not knowing about the world in which I live. I know that Jesse Brown has done some reading on artists who got involved with hard-sciences at MIT (I think) and hopefully he can hip me to the stuff that they were up to. Yesterday in the New York Times this article was published. Apparently an English Chemist has figured out how RNA originates, which is a huge breakthrough for figuring out our origins. Check it out.