the fact that scien- tists in conversation are crisp and clear about their work. The same scientists, writing in a journal, produce a nightmare of incorn- prehensibility. Various explanations have been proposed, but I think the real problem may be structural: Scientific writing now de- mands a passive, abstract literary form.
In conversation, the scientist provides in-
' formation in the way we ordinarily expect to receive it: as a narrative. "We had an unan- swered question in our 'field....