Scientific organizations also need administrators, librarians, translators, personnel directors, glassblowers, instrument repairmen, accountants, and a host of other skilled individuals to keep the team running smoothly. Such positions may be filled by persons with very limited scientific backgrounds. But the advantage—for employment and for advancement—is on the side of the secretary, or purchasing agent, or bookkeeper who has made an effort to become familiar with basic scientific principles and terminology. Nonscientists with scientific background are sufficiently rare to make them unusually valuable assets to scientific organizations.
Work of the Atomic Scientist
After he completes his formal education, the scientist sets about to investigate the world, for that’s what science is all about. The methods he uses to carry out his investigations depend on his particular field. It is impossible to outline what an individual scientist does because he may do any of a thousand things in any of a thousand ways. He may be concerned with nuclear energy almost totally, or he may be concerned with it only slightly.
It is possible, however, to sketch examples of some of the activities undertaken by various members of the scientific community.
Most people are familiar with the broad academic breakdown of the sciences into physics, chemistry, biology, geology, engineering, and mathematics. It is therefore convenient to examine the activities of scientific personnel in each of these areas, as well as medicine, with emphasis on the nuclear energy aspects of each.
Physics
The physicist is dedicated to investigating the laws that govern the universe. He explores gravity, motion, mass, energy, and the myriad interrelated ways that the world is constructed to gain an understanding of his physical surroundings.