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One other thing I've been thinking about. At least among the PhDs I've met, many of them are NOT scientists. That is, they play at science for a while, but it's no great tragedy that they aren't being employed in the academic pursuits. One thing I do wonder is how many scientist-PhDs doing solid work are actually going unfunded, and how many of them are guys and gals researching the CS equivalent of how many angels can stand on the head of a pin.

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In CS/ECE, if there is no application for your research i.e. cannot be commercialized or patented, you will not have funding. There is very little room for theoretical-based research where you play around with math (like counting angels on the head of a pin) to see if it works out with unknown applications. Everything begins with an application in mind --> funding.

Theoreticians do get funding, just not much, and most CS researchers are not hardcore theoreticians (theory is a tool to be used occasionally in support of something else).

Science is something PhDs do only occasionally. Actually, most of the time most of us are innovating, inventing, designing, engineering, managing, ... Even the most white coat researcher in the most sciency field!

Unless you are using a different definition for science? Do you just mean a non-industry academic position?

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