[jwco]

Hamming makes clear his remarks are about how to do "significant things," and he is using science as a microcosm to describe what that is, only because it is the microcosm he is most familiar with. See here:

"Why shouldn't you do significant things in this one life, however you define significant? I'm not going to define it - you know what I mean. I will talk mainly about science because that is what I have studied. But so far as I know, and I've been told by others, much of what I say applies to many fields. Outstanding work is characterized very much the same way in most fields, but I will confine myself to science."