What Does It Take to be a Top-Tier Scientist?

[PipeBox]

Excellent YT video went out earlier about just how to make it to the top in any given field of science, particularly in the U.S.
Consider this in the future whenever a creationist tries to play down the education of a scientist.  Most people can't read scientific journals, but it takes burning arrogance and balls of stupid to call out a professional scientist with the few pages worth of knowledge they recall from their 6th grade physical science book.  Of course, if a scientist's knowledge isn't in question, then their education was full of bias and they are an elitist.  Still, here's that vid:

[youtube:3l3n634z]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGd-tSsbNns[/youtube:3l3n634z]

[thiolsulfate]

Awesome vid.

Just an aside to how far education has fallen, I'm getting quite annoyed at the kinds and quality of people who are now calling themselves "Doctors."

(First I must add the premise that I have no problem with people who call themselves "Doctor" who have a PhD from an accredited University. Getting a PhD is pretty fucking hard no matter what field it's in, given that it's earned form an accredited University. There are, of course, some exceptions, Dr. Phil, but generally individuals who earn a PhD have earned the title "Doctor." There are, of course, considerations to be made when a PhD in Biology makes authoritative statements on Middle Kingdom Chinese Philiosophy and vice versa but that's neither here nor there.)

Case in point: Kent Hovind: the self proclaimed "Dr. Dino." The gaul that this man has to call himself "doctor" anything is appalling. The simple fact that his "doctorate" is in Christian Education should be enough to slow people down -- but when one discovers that his "doctorate" comes from the prestigiously-unaccredited Patriot Bible University, one should stop in one's tracks and turn away. Now, I don't think Kent Hovind is a liar -- just an idiot.

But Kent Hovind isn't the only problem I have with people calling themselves "doctor" who have no business doing so. I'm talking about chiropractors. I've been following chiropractors ever since I worked part time for one in college, and over the years chiropractic has gained an air of legitimacy -- as though that were anything but an atrocity. Here's a little fun fact: chiropractors know less about human anatomy and physiology than veterinarians. The standards to become a veterinarian are more rigorous, more comprehensive, and more competitive than becoming a chiropractor. Having worked for both, having been enticed to join their respective industry by both I can say with some authority that vets know more about medicine than chiropractors. If I was dying slowing after some wretched accident and a chiropractor and vet were equidistant from me, I would, with every available fiber in my body, crawl to the vet so that at the very least I could die near someone who knew what they were doing. Even dentists need a comprehensive knowledge of human anatomy and physiology just to get into dental school and must display it again in licensing exams.

For those who don't know, the fundamental of chiropractic is treatment of the subluxation -- an ailment that hasn't even been proven to exist much more cause any problem -- that subluxations cause misfiring of the nervous system that supposedly lead to system dysfunction. The chiropractor I worked for made outrageous claims that he cured kidney stones and heart murmurs through chiropractic that were either outright lies or outright ignorance, given that the heart beat is independent of the CNS and that the kidney is much more regulated by the endocrine system than the nervous. He could say these outlandish and false things, blatantly and patently false things as fact -- and call himself a doctor -- and have his marks call him doctors -- and fire me for constantly calling him "mister" when I verified with proper PhD doctors at my University that he was full of shit.

(An aside on an aside, the chiropractor I worked for had a little trophy case of testimonial letters from his marks. One that was prominently placed was a Doctor at my University thanking him for treating his five year old. I'm guessing it lended more legitimacy to his house of back cracking because it had the letterhead and seal of my University on it. The chiropractor called this Doctor "a true scientist" because he accepted the bullshit concept of subluxations. After some investigation I found that this "true scientist" was a PhD in Renaissance Literature.)