Robbin Murphy asks a very interesting question and I hope there are a lot
of thoughtful responses. I don't know if the presence of a science center
in a community stimulate technological job growth or not. I do know that
the ones I see wouldn't necessarily encourage that. While few are as
anti-science as the exhibit reviewed recently (review posted on this
list), I find, in a nonstatistical sample, that many exhibits I see at
science and technology centers tend to play up to stereotypes. The
mad-scientist stereotype is one I find increasingly offensive (and tired,
and trite, and....). It hardly encourages exploration of science. And
it's almost inescapable. Now we have the social revisionist school of
science exhibits, which focus on the personality more than on the work.
I'm all for bringing in the person, but not to the exclusion of the oeuvre.
 
We don't have to endorse everything done by scientists any more than by
anybody else. But we can do better by the public than putting up exhibits
by neo-Luddites, can't we? We can't compete in science and math with the
rest of the developed countries as it is. And we are a key forum, like it
or not, for attitudes and ideas.
 
Sally Shelton
Collections Conservation Specialist
San Diego Natural History Museum