Currently reading on the Third Culture. According to John Brockman's definition, "The Third Culture consists of those scientists and other thinkers in the empirical world who, through their work and expository writing, are taking the place of the traditional intellectual in rendering visible the deeper meanings of our lives, redefining who and what we are."

The idea stemmed from the fact that the traditional intellectual was stereotyped as more for the arts than for the sciences. You were considered educated only if you're literary (steeped in literature, philosophy and such), and science didn't count. Well it should.