Being a scientist would be one of the coolest jobs. Get granted a shitload of money. Design something no one understands without you explaining to them what it is. Promise results gleaned from popular science fiction. Every once in a while show some report of progress. Make sure your data is impossible to read by any layman. The more complicated, the better. It doesn't have to be accurate. It doesn't even have to be true. It just needs to be explained in such a way that you get another extension on your funding. Buy a few cool looking machines. Spend the rest on beer and weed. I just need an interesting enough hypothesis to get that first chunk of "research" money to get started...