You’re a scientist. You’re not an actor or singer. Can you imagine a time when tourists come to gawk at you? Well, British physicist Terence Price recounts his initial days, in the late 1940s, at Harwell in the English countryside:
Construction continued apace. Harwell was becoming a showplace for VIPs, so gardeners from Kew were drafted in to clear up as each area was finished. There was an air of excitement and expectation about what lay ahead. We knew we were standard-bearers for the country—and needed no further proof than the “mystery tours” run by London Transport. At weekends these brought red double-decker buses to the Harwell runways, for passenger to gape at scientists digging their gardens, as though we were denizens of a zoo. Newspapers ran headlines like “Atom Man Was There” when one of us attended any meeting that was remotely in the public eye. It was all very heady and enjoyable.
Price, Terence. 2004. Political Physicist. Book Guild, Sussex, p. 85.
