The December 2008 issue of Esquire also includes an article by writer Tom Junod on scientist Mark Roth that brought back unpleasant memories of Chris Crawford, the speaker at the 1998 Sante Fe Nebula Awards Weekend who emptied the room with his insistence that there was a great divide, nearly impossible to cross, between science and the arts.

He raised hackles by going on and on (and on and on and on) about how scientists could never understand creativity, and creative types couldn’t understand scientists.

All of this in front of an audience filled with professional science-fiction writers who were also working scientists … or vice versa.

Anyway, the following statement in the Esquire profile reminded of that uncomfortable moment:

It’s a weird thing about scientists—you would think that they would love science fiction. But they don’t. To admit that you get your ideas from science fiction, if you’re a scientist, that’s, like, career-threatening, man …

I don’t know whether this is something Junod overheard Roth actually say, or if it’s only something that Junod is intuiting from his lengthy interviews, but … what the—? This passage goes against everything I’ve ever heard.

I’m trying to decide whom to blame for this bizarre statement, Junod or Roth. But at least one of them is way off.