The research scientist's culture and mores are tribal. Like most such behavior, scientific tribalism is acquired by example, by apprenticeship via a mentor-disciple relationship, and by intellectual osmosis rather than textbooks or lectures. Members of the scientific tribe rarely describe their cultural practices, not because they have signed a covenant of secrecy nor because one's own cultural routine is rarely articulated but because research scientists generally are uninterested in dialog with the lay public. In science, professional advancement and recognition depend solely on approbation by one's peers, not on communication with or approval by nonscientific outsiders.
__ Carl Djerassi, in the preface to his novel, NO