Importance of Stupidity in Scientific Research

[Sebastian (a lady)]

One of my kids sent me this article.  I thought it was a great shifting of perspective on what you should expect when engaging with upper level science.  

 

http://jcs.biologists.org/content/121/11/1771

 

"That's when it hit me: nobody did. That's why it was a research problem. And being my research problem, it was up to me to solve. Once I faced that fact, I solved the problem in a couple of days. (It wasn't really very hard; I just had to try a few things.) The crucial lesson was that the scope of things I didn't know wasn't merely vast; it was, for all practical purposes, infinite. That realization, instead of being discouraging, was liberating. If our ignorance is infinite, the only possible course of action is to muddle through as best we can."

 

"Science involves confronting our `absolute stupidity'. That kind of stupidity is an existential fact, inherent in our efforts to push our way into the unknown."

[learners4life]

What a great article!    Sending the link to dd!  

 

Thanks for sharing! 

[Lilaclady]

Thanks for sharing.

[hsmom08]

Sooooo True!  Doing research can be very repetitive and make you feel stupid for different reasons.  I once did an experiment over and over again to try to get a publication worthy figure and the raw data just didn't look "pretty" enough.  Having to do it over and over again, just to get it to look pretty, I was getting really frustrated.  So I decided to examine at all my raw data to see if I could find just ONE that was good enough to be published.  In that process of pouring over all my raw data, I actually found something that was unexpected and we were able to publish it in a journal.  Like the authors says, it also doesn't help that you are surrounded by "crème de la crème" of academia and in some instances Nobel Prize winners and there is always more to learn.

[swimmermom3]

Sooooo True!  Doing research can be very repetitive and make you feel stupid for different reasons.  I once did an experiment over and over again to try to get a publication worthy figure and the raw data just didn't look "pretty" enough.  Having to do it over and over again, just to get it to look pretty, I was getting really frustrated.  So I decided to examine at all my raw data to see if I could find just ONE that was good enough to be published.  In that process of pouring over all my raw data, I actually found something that was unexpected and we were able to publish it in a journal.  Like the authors says, it also doesn't help that you are surrounded by "crème de la crème" of academia and in some instances Nobel Prize winners and there is always more to learn.

 

My two older kids hated chemistry classes and I was determined not to have the same thing happen with my youngest. I knew he'd snooze through the regular Chem class at the high school if I sent him there, so I decided to do my own at home using a college-level General Chem book and real experiments with the Thompson lab book.  I spent a bloody fortune and by the semester, I was exhausted and ds was a bit fried.  We've done a lot of science at home, but the Thompson book requires a bit more knowledge than I had, which wasn't awful.

 

When we did experiments in Apologia and other curriculum, experiments usually worked out. The directions were very good. They are not as good in the Thompson book. Also, garage labs stink because they have variable temperatures.  We spent more time analyzing what went wrong with our experiments than we did conducting successful ones. We were also doing it with enough chems of a volatile nature to potentially experience a grand muck up.  We violated more good lab practices than anyone should have to admit to.  We learned to adapt on the fly. "Why isn't the chem dissolving? Argh, the lab is 10 degrees too cold."  Grab beaker with tongs and run through house to stand over heat vent in bathroom to get the right temperature.

 

For a couple of years, I felt guilty about that class, like we had failed.  While I was cleaning out school materials, I came across ds's and my chem notebooks. He had filled two full notebooks with notes, drawings, analysis and problems. It may have been a frustrating year, but it was definitely a learning process. I think he still came away with a greater understanding of chemistry than his siblings, even if it wasn't the "perfect" class like I had planned.

 

[HTRMom]

My two older kids hated chemistry classes and I was determined not to have the same thing happen with my youngest. I knew he'd snooze through the regular Chem class at the high school if I sent him there, so I decided to do my own at home using a college-level General Chem book and real experiments with the Thompson lab book. I spent a bloody fortune and by the semester, I was exhausted and ds was a bit fried. We've done a lot of science at home, but the Thompson book requires a bit more knowledge than I had, which wasn't awful.

 

When we did experiments in Apologia and other curriculum, experiments usually worked out. The directions were very good. They are not as good in the Thompson book. Also, garage labs stink because they have variable temperatures. We spent more time analyzing what went wrong with our experiments than we did conducting successful ones. We were also doing it with enough chems of a volatile nature to potentially experience a grand muck up. We violated more good lab practices than anyone should have to admit to. We learned to adapt on the fly. "Why isn't the chem dissolving? Argh, the lab is 10 degrees too cold." Grab beaker with tongs and run through house to stand over heat vent in bathroom to get the right temperature.

 

For a couple of years, I felt guilty about that class, like we had failed. While I was cleaning out school materials, I came across ds's and my chem notebooks. He had filled two full notebooks with notes, drawings, analysis and problems. It may have been a frustrating year, but it was definitely a learning process. I think he still came away with a greater understanding of chemistry than his siblings, even if it wasn't the "perfect" class like I had planned.

 

That sounds awesome! He will be way better equipped for college lab, if he takes it, than his classmates who blindly followed a few sets of instructions. Although he may violate lab safety at first.