Originally posted by Skydiver
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I disagree that Rush views the other scientists simply as his secretaries. There's no coffee to fetch, after all.
We always see him working alone, or with Eli, or (when the chair is found) with all of them. Yes, the work he has them doing is less important, and he directs them; Rush is the lead scientist and that's typically how science teams IRL operate, in my personal experience. And science is a highly competitive field to start with; just giving away what you know about a project to others is a good way to get your research stolen.
Of course, he shouldn't be so near-sighted as to keep thinking in terms of who is going to get the credit. The habits of a lifetime are hard to break, even if you know you're handicapping yourself.
But indeed, you're right that Rush doesn't respect them enough to keep them briefed on what he is doing or learning. It may be a method of keeping control, but I think it stems more from his lone wolf, anti-social nature. He prefers to work alone; he works best alone. And he works hard, and fast. In the episodes, we see him working when others are busy doing non-scientific things (things they choose to do, not what he orders.) Because of this, he's learned more in the past few weeks or months than all of them combined. He gets very frustrated when he does try to explain things and others can't keep up, as evidenced by the way he treated Volker. But, keep in mind, that was when he was having his nervous breakdown. He was ashamed afterwards of his behavior, at least that's what he told TJ.
I think part of it is also that he doesn't trust any of them to 'be on his side.' Given the constant conflict between him and Young.
I think the other scientists may indeed do more learning in his absence because they have to, but the focus will always be on getting home now. And their new boss is Young, who only cares about the science insofar as how it may get them home quickest. Their comprehension of the ship and tech as a whole may well be more hampered by being under the control of a military commander who takes risks with technology he doesn't understand (such as trying to dial Earth when there wasn't enough power to operate the ship even.)
Not that I can blame them for focusing on getting home, but I do think that taking their time to understand the ship (right now they can't steer it, they can't regulate most of the systems, etc) is smarter because they can't rely on being able to get home before another crisis comes up.
On the brightside, for the scientists, all of Rush's research is probably in his room or on the computers already. Eli, who has shown his superior understanding of the workings of the system, will be able to crack any passwords or the like and he's their best bet for interpreting and relaying all that Rush has learned and hasn't told anyone. Young will certainly order Eli to get hold of this stuff and learn what Rush was up to.
It doesn't change my opinion, though, that they are all better off with Rush there. There's only so much that these other scientists can do, given that their fields of study are different than Rush's. Astrophysicist, geologist, etc.
They can catch up, yes. But do they have enough time to do so?
"So, what's your impression of Alar?"
"Well, according to Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, there’s nothing in the laws of physics to prevent it. Extremely difficult to achieve, mind you – you need the technology to manipulate black holes to create wormholes not only through points in space but time."
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