Birds of a Feather?

In a comment over on an article at The Scientist, reader Aaron McCoy says that the "biggest influences in my scientific life are Francis Crick, Ian McKaye [of bands Minor Threat, Embrace, and Fugazi], Mike Watt [of bands Minutemen, Firehose, and others], and Barack Obama." Similarly, he adds that "the biggest influences in my punk rock life are Francis Crick, Ian McKaye, Mike Watt, and Barack Obama," With this, he largely validates The Scientist's Alison McCook's idea that researchers and punk rock musicians have more in common than they might realize. McCook says that researchers' ethos match those of punk rockers in many ways, especially as "scientists can set their own schedules and decide what they want to study." Indeed, she adds that"both punk and science also value individualism and are not always embraced by society." Milo Aukerman, an industrial plant biochemist at DuPont and lead singer of The Descendants, tells The Scientist that biologists are "always looking for discoveries that challenge current thinking," though he adds that while the two worlds sometimes collide, they ought not often converge; he "will probably never ever write a song about DNA."