What Scientists Can Learn from Makers

Abstract

In this book we have often talked about the similarities between scientists and makers or hackers. The previous chapter discussed how to teach someone science by making things. But what happens if we turn that around? What can a scientist learn from a maker or a hacker? This concluding chapter looks at this aspect in two ways. First, the pragmatic: what technologies and techniques from the maker community might be useful in the scientific community? And second, philosophically: how are makers and scientists alike—or different? Because we will be jumping back and forth between experiences we each have had and some that we experienced together, we conclude our book together and call out our individual experiences.