So is being God basically the same as playing "The Sims"

[Fidel_Castronaut]

Cutting edge scientists are the most AMORAL group of people on earth. They don't care about ethics. They care about accolades.

I'll be sure to tell my fiancé that. I'm sure she cares about what you say when she's developing new anti-biotics to keep the world's human and animal populations alive into the future.

But on a serious note, why do you think what you write is true? Generalisations aside (and what you posted was a big generalisation), how many scientists do you know that enables you to back up your assertion? I have no doubt some scientists do care about accolades, but I can't think of one personally (and I know a lot) who are engaged in their particular school of science simply because of the accolades.

Science funding throughout the western world is actually quite shit. Most of my fiancé's research is funded through a British science charity, and most terms at a Univeristy are for a very limited number of years (depending on funding) unless you're a PI with a catalogue of research that makes you attractive to University's/ research institutions looking to employ you on a long term basis directly.

Most of them do it because they enjoy it, and it's what they're good at. My fiancé got into microbiology because she was good at it at school, and found she had a talent for it at University. Now she researchers as a career because she sees the dire situation that a lot of the world is in when it comes to emerging anti-biotic resistance and the increasing number of deaths it causes year on year. Not to mention the fact that our stock of useable antibiotics is actually diminishing year on year in tandem. She's never once recieved an 'award', and even those that have just see them as recognition from their peers that their peers value their work to a level where an award is deemed necessary.