Why do scientists travel? Hans Selye, the father of the concept of stress, wrote that scientists are not motivated by fortune, but by fame. They work for approval and applause from fellow scientists.
I think that scientists travel to receive the approval and applause that they cannot find at home. Even the most brilliant scientist is just another member of the faculty of his or her own university, or just another one of the many scientists in a research institute. In the performing arts, a resident diva may receive as great an ovation in her own house as in a distant house, but rarely does a research institution provide the opportunity for its own scientists to be applauded. In many cases the home institution may only honor its own people upon their death or retirement. Brilliant papers are only single entries in the annual report of a department, without any ...
