ABSTRACT
Scientists and science are both surrounded by mythology and mystique so that image and reality are easily confused. The scope of modern science is enormous, and the disciplines and specialisms within its hazy boundaries each possess their own vocabulary. Science owes its beginnings to the unquenchable curiosity of man to understand natural phenomena. However, Ben-David argued that the emergence, and subsequent exponential growth, of modern science was only facilitated by social conditions absent in early civilisations. Kuhn identified several levels of membership of the community of science. The global level includes all natural scientists. Science, which had been chiefly an academic activity, converged with technology during the late nineteenth century. At this time, the first industrial research and development laboratories, employing the newly acknowledged class of ‘professional’ scientist, were set up in Germany, followed by the US and Britain. There is much heterogeneity but all scientists with academic qualifications have necessarily spent some time studying within the university system.
