"We really think it is a good thing for scientists to spend a little bit of their time either in the community or in schools or helping to train high school teachers"
About this Quote
Cech’s line sounds politely managerial, but it’s actually a quiet rebuke to the default culture of modern science: publish, grant, repeat. By saying “we really think,” he frames outreach not as a hobby for the unusually civic-minded, but as a norm a serious institution should endorse. The softening phrases - “a good thing,” “a little bit of their time” - are strategic. He’s negotiating with the scarce resource scientists guard most fiercely: attention. The sentence is built to disarm the predictable backlash that community work is a distraction from “real” research.
The intent is practical as much as moral. “In the community or in schools” broadens the target beyond the standard guest lecture. He’s pointing to scientists as infrastructural actors: people who can strengthen the pipeline, demystify expertise, and translate methods into habits of thinking. The most pointed clause is “helping to train high school teachers.” That’s a systems move. Teachers shape scientific literacy at scale; training them is leverage, not charity.
Context matters: Cech is not just any lab scientist; he’s a Nobel-winning biochemist who led major institutions and watched trust in expertise become politically fragile. Read that way, the quote is also reputational self-defense for science itself. If the public meets scientists only through press releases and pandemic-era edicts, the relationship becomes transactional and brittle. Cech is arguing for face time - not as PR, but as a long-term investment in legitimacy, curiosity, and the next generation of researchers.
The intent is practical as much as moral. “In the community or in schools” broadens the target beyond the standard guest lecture. He’s pointing to scientists as infrastructural actors: people who can strengthen the pipeline, demystify expertise, and translate methods into habits of thinking. The most pointed clause is “helping to train high school teachers.” That’s a systems move. Teachers shape scientific literacy at scale; training them is leverage, not charity.
Context matters: Cech is not just any lab scientist; he’s a Nobel-winning biochemist who led major institutions and watched trust in expertise become politically fragile. Read that way, the quote is also reputational self-defense for science itself. If the public meets scientists only through press releases and pandemic-era edicts, the relationship becomes transactional and brittle. Cech is arguing for face time - not as PR, but as a long-term investment in legitimacy, curiosity, and the next generation of researchers.
Quote Details
| Topic | Teaching |
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