LinkedIn got me my past 2 jobs (great, well-paying, benefits, 401(k), all that shit) and I work for a bank in an area (compliance) that really has nothing to do with technology. LinkedIn works for my dad and he works in project management for insurance companies. I think LinkedIn is really great for people in given industries. Of course I can't speak for all science jobs but I bet there's a corporate science industry that uses LinkedIn. Part of it is a matter of whether you'd be willing to work in corporate science - big companies that aren't too personal and wouldn't give you freedom to do all the science-y shit you might want to do. And...in case you're curious...right now I have a stolen, zombie laptop with mostly broken USB ports and a disk drive so fucked up that I just pulled it out of the computer so now there's a big ol' hole. I admit I have an iPhone, but it's because the company pays for it. I wouldn't choose to pay for that on my own.

LinkedIn is where recruiters go when they're trying to find people. That's why it works well for corporate industries. It's very much not a computer science/IT crowd sort of thing. It's much more digital networking. I get soft job offers there probably once a month. I'm just saying, don't knock it as the realm of tech professionals. It can really help you in the long run. I nearly doubled my salary with my first LinkedIn job...and I wasn't even looking for jobs at the time. A recruiter emailed me and asked me if I'd be interested, and I said yes.