Whoa. In popular media, sciency types in popular media are always talking about "elegance" and yet, growing up around scientists has largely led me to believe that the elegance in science is often of a more brutal strain than is commonly assumed by laypeople. As for Scientific American article, I hit a paywall, but a PDF of the article is available here. I didn't see what you were talking about though. Did I find the full article? It seems so.The gene gun was originally a Crosman air pistol modified to fire dense tungsten particles.
A physicist friend of mine did some work at CERN a couple of years ago over the summer and he was totally sobered by how much aged equipment and duct tape was used. I think the elegance comes fromwhy your experiment should work, not how you have to do the damn thing. In biology it can get reeeeal messy.
Granted, CERN is an umbrella for a lot of different projects, and it wasn't like they were holding the giant detector in place along with some used gum and shoelaces. His was something on the analysis end, but still it was weird to see. Also, tangentially, some researchers make graphene just by slapping some plain 'ol tape on graphite, so maybe some new incarnations wouldn't be a bad idea.
I think most successful scientists are pragmatic. If you need to launch buckshot into cellular tissue, a "gun" is a great way to do it. I gave you the wrong issue. I just cruised the whole thing; I'm not sure where it was. It was a single-page thing so it may take me a while to find.As for Scientific American article, I hit a paywall, but a PDF of the article is available here.
Ah well, if it's a pain, don't worry about it. A friend's mother is employed by the US Forest Service and though I'm not entirely clear on what her research entails, I know that the recent changes to gun laws in various states has greatly impeded how she collects samples, which of course involves using shotguns to get pieces from the upper branches of trees. Dendrology is a lot more interesting with guns. Walking around measuring tree's DBH could be fun I guess, provided a collaborator with some nice Bs.I think most successful scientists are pragmatic. If you need to launch buckshot into cellular tissue, a "gun" is a great way to do it.