One of the main complaints I hear from Nastya is that sometimes I can say something that makes everyone feel awkward and embarrassed. And yes, it turns out that I end up hurting people for no reason, even though I never intended to attack them or show any aggression at all.
The modern problem of biology in the USSR, as I see it, lies in the fact that it is taught as a “humanities” science, meaning it is treated as a given: classification into neat categories, description of processes and phenomena, and a lack of predictive tools. In reality, however, biology is at the forefront of scientific thought: it encompasses mathematics, chemistry, and physics in all their sub-disciplines, as well as computer science. The tools and methodologies used require an understanding of how electronic devices work, computational technology, a significant amount of complex software, and the ability to write algorithms and program in various languages.
In other words, a former student of the biology faculty leaves university with a sense of complete and thorough understanding of the world, with no gaps left. Meanwhile, former students from other natural science faculties graduate with the realization that they don’t really understand anything at all; the world is still not fully described, and there are plenty of areas where they can continue to explore.
Of course, in such an environment, the greatest successes in biological laboratories in the territory of the former USSR are achieved by people who have found themselves there by chance—mathematicians and physicists, rather than biologists. Biologists are sent to these laboratories right after university, where they wither away in just a few months and are generally unable to contribute anything meaningful from a scientific perspective. They would be better off on expeditions, discovering new beetles, rather than in a neurophysiology lab, connecting microelectrodes to living neurons and analyzing their activity. In this context, the term “biologist” becomes a sentence, a stereotypical and biased description of a person who is incapable of understanding even moderately complex concepts. A caveat: this refers to the state of affairs in Ukraine at the beginning of the 21st century. I do not know how things are now.
One day, Nastya was expecting her colleague, who was a biologist. She promised to show him some movies on CDs that I had specially recorded for this occasion, having downloaded them from torrents beforehand. The biologist couldn’t possibly know what a “torrent” was, and Nastya generously helped him out. Before her colleague arrived, Nastya strictly forbade me from even mentioning any jokes about biologists. In that environment, jokes about biologists were akin to jokes about blondes. And I honestly kept my mouth shut.
The whole evening went well. We drank tea and chatted. Just as we were leaving, the guy asked how to play these discs. Nastya asked me again. I told her that when she comes to work, if the necessary player isn’t on the computer, she can download the codec or just get the player with the codecs. I mentioned the name of the player, the name of the codec, and jokingly added, “Well, you’ll figure it out, you’re not a biologist.”
Facepalm. The guy with a forced smile quickly said goodbye and didn’t ask for any more movies.