After many mild winters in a row, Mother Nature decided to overcompensate this year and unleashed on us more snow and cold days than even the most fervent winter enthusiast could ask for. I do like a snowy landscape on days when the sun makes a rare appearance, but there are aspects of winter that I could do without – namely being woken up by all the road clearing that happens at 4 am. Unable to fall back asleep one morning, I had a think about the winter service vehicles driving around outside and what they might have to do with science.

Winter in Finland, 16 Jan 2021 Winter in Finland, 16 Jan 2021

Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Marie Curie. Even Rosalind Franklin. In a parallel universe where scientists get reincarnated as vehicles, I bet these individuals would be snow ploughs. Snow ploughs are the heroes of treacherous wintry roads. They are always first at the scene, ready to uncover the roads and create paths for others to follow. They are literal trailblazers that go where no other vehicle has gone before on that snowy morning. They work alone but together their efforts create the network of cleared roads that the rest of the city relies on.

However, the system would break down if all we had were the snow ploughs. We also need vehicles like salt trucks that carry out the much less glamorous tasks of salting, gritting and de-icing the roads. These vehicles maintain the roads, reinforce the tracks created by snow ploughs and do their best to make the roads walkable and driveable to others. To me, salt trucks are like the everyday scientists, science communicators and teachers who do much of the heavy lifting without getting credit for it. These are the people who fill in the gaps of knowledge after the snow plough scientists have moved on to make the next big discovery. People who translate the findings into something that can be understood and used by the rest of us. People who educate a new generation of innovators.

Yet, in science and society more broadly, we celebrate only the snow ploughs. If I ask you to think of a ‘scientific hero’, what comes to mind is probably someone similar to the names I mentioned above – someone dressed in a lab coat, famous for a theory or discovery we have all learn about in school. These people certainly deserve being called heroes but this practice of elevating a few big names above everyone else comes with its problems. It implies that all the valuable contributions to science come from the snow ploughs and that the best scientists are the ones who make the biggest breakthroughs. That is obviously not true but it still remains a pervasive sentiment.

I want to be a scientist but not necessarily the biggest snow plough on the roads. That shouldn’t be a problem but it’s hard to sustain a career in science these days unless you are ready to join the aggressive snow plough competition. There are so many valuable ways to contribute to science, although not all of them get the recognition they deserve. Some of us will be snow ploughs, others will be salt trucks or perhaps snow blowers or loaders. We recognise that all the winter service vehicles are essential – can’t we do the same for their science counterparts as well?