Henry Kissinger: scientists must understand history

why this war criminal is given space is beyond me - Nobel prize was satire but nobody recognized it as that - almost as much as Obama's

Funny, but my experience as a scientist is not that of C.P. Snow's "two cultures", that is, mutual incomprehension. Many scientists at least of research group leader level and higher, have a deep, almost professional, level of interest in and knowledge of some branch of the Humanities and Arts. The apparent cross-over of musical abilities of mathematicians is well known, but deep and detailed interests in visual arts and in history are common. My experience in mixing with people of Humanities and Arts backgrounds is that the reverse does not apply to anything like the same degree; many realize that Science is important while having next to no detailed knowledge of any aspect of it. Unfortunately some even decry some or other aspect of science apparently because it abolishes the sublime, and worse, it is expressed in prose that is stodgy: this extends from Samuel Butler's and George Bernard Shaw's anti-Darwinian tirades up to Geoffrey Blainey's and Clive James' dismissal of climate change science! So, to turn this around, perhaps historians must understand science.