The other day I met up with the artist who created the Tilted Windmills outside Selfridges in Manchester. Tilted Windmills - do you see what he's done there? Very good. A delightful moment amidst the mundane. I wish we could capture some of the magic of science - research has become rather prosaic for my liking.
The power of Academia Past was that it had fantastically quixotic tendencies. Looking a hundred years ahead or taking a sideways leap nobody expected is precisely what academia is for. Modern academic science only tends to pursue basic research with predictable results. Where we can anticipate the answer is it particularly worth looking for? I suppose yes, sometimes, but always? Should we be so relentlessly pragmatic?
Even the practical answer to this is No. The foundations laid by basic research now are built upon by applications in the future. Moreover, I think unexpected and deeply profound insights are unlikely under our current cautious, incremental model. One cannot crawl across a gorge, only leap.
Science is an inherently delightful subject in which the uniquely human trait of immense and boundless curiosity is manifest in its most reliable (objective) form. The pursuit of knowledge purely for it's own sake might appear quixotic but it is what the human animal does. I think basic research - where we seek answer to questions without knowing why - is often justifiable simply because exploration is good, new knowledge is good, understanding is good.
For me this combination of factors defines curiosity: explore, learn, understand. While I appreciate the many good practical reasons for applied science, it is where these processes elegantly combine to give new and profound insights that I find my lonely impulse of delight. I am sure that Science is shot through with such moments, but it can seem unrelentingly mundane in practice and I lose sight of them. I'd like more delightful moments of science magic amidst the mundane.
The power of Academia Past was that it had fantastically quixotic tendencies. Looking a hundred years ahead or taking a sideways leap nobody expected is precisely what academia is for. Modern academic science only tends to pursue basic research with predictable results. Where we can anticipate the answer is it particularly worth looking for? I suppose yes, sometimes, but always? Should we be so relentlessly pragmatic?
Even the practical answer to this is No. The foundations laid by basic research now are built upon by applications in the future. Moreover, I think unexpected and deeply profound insights are unlikely under our current cautious, incremental model. One cannot crawl across a gorge, only leap.
Science is an inherently delightful subject in which the uniquely human trait of immense and boundless curiosity is manifest in its most reliable (objective) form. The pursuit of knowledge purely for it's own sake might appear quixotic but it is what the human animal does. I think basic research - where we seek answer to questions without knowing why - is often justifiable simply because exploration is good, new knowledge is good, understanding is good.
For me this combination of factors defines curiosity: explore, learn, understand. While I appreciate the many good practical reasons for applied science, it is where these processes elegantly combine to give new and profound insights that I find my lonely impulse of delight. I am sure that Science is shot through with such moments, but it can seem unrelentingly mundane in practice and I lose sight of them. I'd like more delightful moments of science magic amidst the mundane.
hi paul, nice post. I think most lab work is pretty mundane, but what makes it all worthwhile is the magical moments in between. Personally I find it is not always easy to judge if your personal magic:mundane ratio is optimal or not...
ReplyDeleteI suspect the magic:mundane ratio for most scientists unavoidably hovers around or below the detection limit because a lot of graft is required to find them (a bit like mining diamonds) but when they come along such moments can be really magical...
ReplyDeletesupernova nucleosynthesis
The magic parts are rare though, perhaps we should be looking to make the mundane less so?