We value throwing a ball through a hoop more than science

That we have come so far in the enterprise of understanding nature, far enough to pry open the nucleus of the atom, to sail through interplanetary space, to lose ourselves in the Internet, and perform medical surgery with laser beams, all of this is cause for great celebration, not fear, and it's time we quit hiding all this under the covers and let these people come out of the shadows into the light of day and take accurate stock of their accomplishments and their failures and make an attempt to understand what they do and why they do it... Now the back effect on the populace of feeding the public a skewed view of the scientist and his or her world is sad to contemplate. We're living in it right now. Just think how many impressionable young individuals might otherwise have been interested in a life dedicated to scientific pursuit, and they turned away from it because it wasn't cool. They saw an off-putting perception of it by watching the movies, and how many brilliant minds which might otherwise have been engaged in breaking new ground in fields in such as physics or chemistry, molecular biology, genetics, and on and on were turned away because they percieved that scientists are not valued, their work is not valued, their work is not considered noble, but instead it's nerdy, it's uncooth, it's socially unacceptable. It's a very very sad commentary on the values of our culture when shooting a ball into a basket is more laudable, more praiseworthy, more admirable, and more rewarded than teasing out some fundamental truth about the natural world or finding a cure for AIDS or cancer.

It's unfortunate that we live in a society where professional sports are valued over enlightening endeavors.