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
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”
