On THE Road WITH Scott Douglas

“Thave little doubt that such dumbing

down will be successful if our aim is tomaximize the total population count at our event. But when I protest that whatis being marketed here is not real science, I am rebuked for my ‘elitism’ and told that luring people in, by any means, is a necessary first step. Well, if we must use the word (I wouldn’t), maybe elitism is not such a terrible thing. And there is a great difference between an exclusive snobbery and an embracing, flattering elitism that strives to help people to raise their game and join the elite. A calculated dumbing down is the worst: condescending and patronizing .. . !worry that to promote science as all fun and larky and easy is to store up trouble for the future. Real science can be hard (well, challenging, to give it a more positive spin) but, like classical literature or playing the violin, worth the struggle. If children are lured into science, or any other worthwhile occupation, by the promise of easy fun, what are they going to do when they finally have to confront the reality?” —Richard Dawkins,

Unweaving the Rainbow

Last spring, a woman in my office came by cap in hand a few months

before the Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon. She was one of the legions doing the inaugural event as a first-timer to raise money for a charity. Happy that the officeconversation ¢ had, ever so briefly, moved beyond the brevity of the previous weekend and what the following day’s weather might hold, I gave her a check for $52.40.

“That’s an odd amount,” she told me.

“Umm, divide $52.40 by 2 and you get…?”

STACEY CRAMP

Blank stare. I tried again. “26.2 dollars… 26.2 miles in a marathon.”

“Oh, that’s right” she said, her face lighting up. “I forgot how far it is.”

ULTIMATE REALITY

“What to do about the charity runners” has become almost as predictable and tiresome a topic of conversation among self-styled “real runners” as weekends and weather are in my office. For now,