venerdì 8 luglio 2016

Maybe the proper way to start is...why do we start?

I was wondering which amazing topic I could have addressed to you...then Carlos A. Aguilar-Trigueros (Science) found the right "answer"!

Anyway, James Rothman also gave us some good tips about it. This is from his Pauli Lecture 2016 held at ETH in Zurich some weeks ago!

How societies balance the patience needed for good science against the urgency of short-term needs may be the major factor determing its capacity to innovate and therefore compete.

Research and art. The rare artists and the rare scientists capable of performing at the edge have a lot in common. They both have an intuitive vision carrying strong emotional content.

Choosing a problem. As a young scientist, I asked the Nobel Laureate Arthur Kornberg why he chose DNA (early 1050’s). He said that the problem was of the greatest importance; that everyone else assumed it could not be done; but that he thought it could be. It was a good advice.


Do not be afraid to be “stupid”. If you do not understand something, it was probably unclear. It is
amazing how many people don’t ask. I always did.

Troubles Are Good For You (TAGFY). Troubles mean that you are about (maybe) to discover something you did not know about. This can be very good. Embracing TAGFY gives you strength in hard times.  

It is much harder to stop a project than to start one. To do so takes real intellectual honesty and a complete disregard of ego. But if you don’t, success will be only further away.


The greatest discover ever made is the scientific method itself.





Back to the Nobel Lecture (December 11, 1907),  E. Buchner said:
“We must never let ourselves fall into thinking “ignorabimus” (We shall never know), but must have every confidence that the day will dawn when even those processes of life which are still a puzzle today wil cease to be inaccessible to us natural scientists”