I attended an interesting talk the other day. Bruce Alberts, a man with many titles - biochemistry and biophysics prof at UCSF, United States Science Envoy, and Editor in Chief of Science magazine - spoke about his research and science in general. The talk was part of the IMED Seminar Series, a great series out of UCLA’s School of Medicine.
Alberts started off with a brief overview of his research, and shared an interesting tidbit about his graduate research. Because he failed to think about what would happen if his PhD experiment didn’t work, he accomplished something that no one else at Harvard had ever done, he failed his PhD thesis defense. After this jarring experience, he realized how important it is to set up an experiment so that whether you get the result you want or not, you learn something valuable. At this point he added the requisite, “my failures have made me the person I am.” Even though this idea is cliche, it is still motivational.
Because of his work as a United States Science Envoy his views about the current state of science made it into the talk. He is a big advocate of anything that drives research into new directions. He feels that the general structure of academic research discourages innovative thinking.
To illustrate this point he showed a great figure. It was a pie chart with a great number of varying sized slices alternating in color between red and white. The center of the chart was the beginning of lines of research. As work began in a particular line, signified by being red, the work done expanded the knowledge along that line, visually shown by the slice’s expansion from the middle out towards the edge of the circle. This expansion is also helped by students of researchers, who typically continue in their mentor’s vein of research. As these lines of active research expand, the lines of inactive research, white slices, also expand, with potential but unexplored topics building on other potential but unexplored topics.
I liked this example because it is the counterpoint to the famous saying by Issac Newton. While he saw farther because he was standing on the shoulders of giants, there are these other potential areas of knowledge and innovation with no giant shoulders to stand on.
Alberts didn’t have detailed prescriptions for fostering innovative research, beyond the standard line of favoring interdisciplinary work, but he did advocate a way to spark new research ideas. Universities have a lot of academic talks, but the people who typically attend are those doing research in the same field. These people, students or professors, tend to already know 90% of the material being presented, so it is much more valuable for researchers to go to talks outside their areas of interest. This approach is applicable to all parts of life, new experiences tend to generate ideas and innovative problem solving.
On the policy side he discussed a project he initiated during his time at the National Academy of Sciences. In 1996 members of Congress were calling for the reduction of funding for research without any immediate application, or basic science. While on the surface it makes sense to favor research that leads directly to products, or applied research, it is terribly difficult to predict what will come of research. Though an experiment might at first seem only useful for knowledge’s sake, eventually someone could build on that knowledge to create something of immense value.
He managed to change the mind of those members of Congress with a series of articles called Beyond DiscoveryTM: The Path from Research to Human Benefit. These articles showed how basic science can lead, sometimes unexpectedly, to inventions with world-changing consequences. From MRIs to GPS, many of today’s vital tools wouldn’t be available without investments in basic science.
Alberts started off with a brief overview of his research, and shared an interesting tidbit about his graduate research. Because he failed to think about what would happen if his PhD experiment didn’t work, he accomplished something that no one else at Harvard had ever done, he failed his PhD thesis defense. After this jarring experience, he realized how important it is to set up an experiment so that whether you get the result you want or not, you learn something valuable. At this point he added the requisite, “my failures have made me the person I am.” Even though this idea is cliche, it is still motivational.
Because of his work as a United States Science Envoy his views about the current state of science made it into the talk. He is a big advocate of anything that drives research into new directions. He feels that the general structure of academic research discourages innovative thinking.
To illustrate this point he showed a great figure. It was a pie chart with a great number of varying sized slices alternating in color between red and white. The center of the chart was the beginning of lines of research. As work began in a particular line, signified by being red, the work done expanded the knowledge along that line, visually shown by the slice’s expansion from the middle out towards the edge of the circle. This expansion is also helped by students of researchers, who typically continue in their mentor’s vein of research. As these lines of active research expand, the lines of inactive research, white slices, also expand, with potential but unexplored topics building on other potential but unexplored topics.
I liked this example because it is the counterpoint to the famous saying by Issac Newton. While he saw farther because he was standing on the shoulders of giants, there are these other potential areas of knowledge and innovation with no giant shoulders to stand on.
Alberts didn’t have detailed prescriptions for fostering innovative research, beyond the standard line of favoring interdisciplinary work, but he did advocate a way to spark new research ideas. Universities have a lot of academic talks, but the people who typically attend are those doing research in the same field. These people, students or professors, tend to already know 90% of the material being presented, so it is much more valuable for researchers to go to talks outside their areas of interest. This approach is applicable to all parts of life, new experiences tend to generate ideas and innovative problem solving.
On the policy side he discussed a project he initiated during his time at the National Academy of Sciences. In 1996 members of Congress were calling for the reduction of funding for research without any immediate application, or basic science. While on the surface it makes sense to favor research that leads directly to products, or applied research, it is terribly difficult to predict what will come of research. Though an experiment might at first seem only useful for knowledge’s sake, eventually someone could build on that knowledge to create something of immense value.
He managed to change the mind of those members of Congress with a series of articles called Beyond DiscoveryTM: The Path from Research to Human Benefit. These articles showed how basic science can lead, sometimes unexpectedly, to inventions with world-changing consequences. From MRIs to GPS, many of today’s vital tools wouldn’t be available without investments in basic science.
No comments:
Post a Comment