[ExI] The difference between Discovery and Design.

[David Lubkin]

Spike wrote:

>But in this short life, we are given a few soaring talents who are 
>both top scientists and excellent writers: Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, 
>for instance, but Darwin was the best of the best.

Sagan was an okay scientist. He was far from top tier. Asimov
was not a scientist at all, by any reasonable metric. He got his
PhD and taught for a few years at BU. He did no research as
a biochemist.

"I was hired to teach ... as a researcher, I can do a creditable
job, but I am merely adequate -- no more."
         [In Joy Still Felt, p 111]

If you want a soaring talent who is both a top scientist and an
excellent writer, my best candidates are probably Lynn Margulis
(who, btw, was Sagan's ex) and Linus Pauling, although there
are other names, like E. O. Wilson, that lurk in my hindbrain.


-- David.