After reading chapter four, attentiveness and the love of nature, I have a few thoughts on some of the points made.  I appreciated the points made specifically in opposition to the stereotypes held by society about scientists.  Scientists are not completely cold hearted and unemotional, because there is a reason that a scientist chooses to study a specific question about the universe.  Scientists enter the field because of the passion for the work that they are doing, and the drive to uncover new truths about the world.

In class, we discussed the very issue of what the central driving focus of science is, and we came to the conclusion that it is to discover new truths about the world.  In this chapter, it is argued that in order to observe the most information possible, and in my opinion uncover the most truths about the world, a scientist has to be passionate and loving of her work.  I agree with this, but I also believe that when it comes to the act of gathering data and recording the observations, a scientist has to push away their emotions.

A scientist can be extremely passionate and emotional about their work and still be completely unemotional when collecting data.  I believe that allowing one’s emotions to be active during this stage can lead to unintentional consequences, e.g. exaggerating effects.

After reading Darwin’s obituaries, I read an obituary of George Washington Carver. I believe that the obituary did a good job giving Carver credit for the accomplishes he had throughout his life. However, I would have liked to see how his obituary would have been written today, due to the discrimination and oppression that was in place at the time.  I would be interested to see if the detail or accomplishments written about would be changed.