Punks in Science is a member-created community of punks who are involved in science. Its purpose is to be a social and professional resource for a group of people who are not particularly numerous, visible, or well-represented in the institutions where science is practiced. For now, PIS is primarily a web-based organization, but if there is enough interest and participation in the future, it might expand into meatspace. You never know.

WE mean punk as in punk rock (and not the, uh, other definition). But you may have something else in kind. Essentially, Punk is a very big tent, a general label that encompasses people affiliated with sub-cultures and sub-genres, such as musical diversity as in anything relating to hardcore, straight edge, skate rock, gothic, industrial, ska, mod, indy, alternative, grunge, emo, math rock, post rock, old school, new school, (some variants of) metal, maybe even a few corners of hip-hop. It’s not immediately clear whether music, fashion, or lifestyle are individually necessary or sufficient to the definition of punk; more likely punk involves some combination of all three. Whatever the case, we’re interested in including people and not excluding them. If you can relate to what we’re doing at PIS, then you’re punk enough for us.

Now there’s a question that deserves a long discussion over beverages. A dirty secret is that nobody really knows or agrees what exactly science is. (That’s why philosophers of science still have jobs.) Soon we will post a longer essay on the website that addresses this question from a Punks in Science point of view (give us your input now!). In the meantime, we mean by the term ’science’ that particular method of investigation into the workings of the universe that is characterized by rational inquiry (whatever THAT turns out to be). Again, we don’t wish to exclude anybody, so we do not restrict our definition of science to empirical investigation — we think that mathematics and (some) philosophy counts as science too. By Punks IN Science we just mean anybody of the punk persuasion who regards themselves as a scientist: whether you study science, work in a scientific institution, want to do science, or are just a scientific sympathizer.

Why do you think we chose the name Punks in Science? If you don’t like it, PIS off!

Well, Klea’s a punk and Jeff’s a punk too. Both of us were graduate students in the Washington, DC area: Jeff at Georgetown University and Klea at the University of Maryland, College Park. Both of us were feeling somewhat socially isolated in our departments, where we were the only punks (at that time, there’s a few more now). Both of us were (and are) aware that science gets a bad rap among punks and progressives, who often think of science only as representing oppressive technologies, dogma, and institutions. But both of us strongly believed (and believe) that science as a method of inquiry is inherently and vitally both punk and progressive. The rub? Jeff & Klea toiled alone for two years before we knew that the other existed! We finally met a month before Klea was leaving for a post-doc in Germany, and in one of the many drink-and-discussion sessions that ensued, we decided that punks in science needed a way to contact each other and organize. Hence, Punks in Science!

Well, nothing. We threw together a website, but we haven’t worked on it much. That’s partially because we’re busy with school and work, and partially because neither of us are very adept at graphic design, programming, or web development. Right now, we can offer punksinscience.org server space for your web-page, and a nifty you@punksinscience.org email address, to anyone who wants to represent themselves publicly as a Punk in Science. We hope you do. If so, YOU can actually start off by doing something for Punks in Science, starting a hopefully long-lasting, creative & extensive, ever-growing worldwide network.

We would like to have an active community based at the Punks in Science website. We’ll start with a members directory that includes basic contact info about all our members, up to individual discretion. (That means, at least a name, an email address and a rough physical location, but Jeff & Klea are going to put in full contact addresses, musical & cultural favourites, scientific research interests etc.) That way no one will have to go through what Jeff & Klea did. A bulletin board is next. Members can use the site to hook up with other PISers, arrange meetings, exchange papers, whatever. We’d also like to have a big collection of relevant links, and maybe a members section where people can submit papers, commentary, reviews, or anything else that might interest a punk in science. And we’ll have the addresses for people too.

You never know: grants, parties, conferences, a print journal, congressional testimony? It just depends on how much interest and participation there is.

Your interest and participation! Just take a PIS-address, use it, and then submit something for the website (links, essays, abstracts, papers, anything)! Or just use it as a new contact database. We already have someone who can build a members directory, one that has input forms and can be searched by field — now start mailing in. Right now, we’re especially hoping for someone to design a cool logo, and maybe a cool design theme for the website. Help!

It’s pretty damn complicated. You have to email us and say something like: “Hey, that PIS sounds pretty cool. Count me in.” We’ll put you on the info list and give you a PIS address if you want one. That’s it. No obligations, obviously.

We don’t want to be in charge of Punks in Science. We want the members to collectively build and maintain PIS themselves. (Remember, Klea and Jeff are basically anarchists.) This means that just about everything in PIS is open to negotiation and change. If you don’t like the term ‘member’, then let’s change it! We would love to hear some input and suggestions. (One relevant feedback we got from a Munich-based anarchist is to replace any mention pertaining to “organization” by NETWORK; could that leave “members” with NODES…?)