Martin A. Schwartz’s journal of cell science, The importance of stupidity in scientific research, has made me laugh and feel so interested to question its publicity according to the title before I have started reading it. Actually, it is not a good approach towards reading a piece when a reader prejudges it without a detailed look at its content. Anyways, I have read the journal and my perspective on it is totally changed now. It is such a great work to read and I have felt ashamed to think of it as a meaningless writing. During my accomplishment of reading this well-written journal, I have learned a major feature of being a researcher in a scientific research project, especially as a graduate school student, which is the researcher’s feeling stupid throughout the research. This is a bizarre concept which might not make any sense to a reader of this journal that does not have any base of be involved in scientific researches. But for me, being a science student who is working on a research project, I can definitely relate my experience in the laboratory with Schwartz’s situation. I always feel stupid and unsatisfied at the end of the day in the laboratory and that sometimes can even get to the point that I partially lose my interest in the project as I get so much discouraged. I believe that this feeling is mainly originated from the repeated negative results of my experiments. One thing that I cannot deny in this whole scenario is that I am getting so much knowledge from my ‘failures’ and ‘stupidity’ from each of those days. Obviously, learning is the climax of any student’s goal in attending an institution and that’s what a graduate school student achieves everyday he/she feels like dumb as a rock. That friend of Schwartz’s who is a lawyer now is a bright woman to identify that science is not her strongest field of studies but law instead; but I also want to point out that she is also not the most convincing and successful lawyer out there as she could not take the challenge of graduate school and dropped out. In my personal case, I want to extend my circumference of studying onto a medical school in my career. Medical school is very similar to research graduate school in several aspects and the type of courses offered and their context are the most challenging characteristics they have in common unlike high school and college courses. In general, I will always keep Schwartz’s piece of advice in mind like the powerhouse to the survival of my career and goal in becoming a well-recognized and ‘knowledge-rich’ health science professional thanks to my stupidity in my scientific research of today.
Jonathan W. Yewdell’s essay How to Succeed in Science: a concise guide for young biomedical scientists has two parts that deal with different aspects of a research. In Part I: taking the plunge, Yewdell has brought up very important issues and satisfactory responses to most of the questions that young science students, like me, have posed. It is basically a map of the graduate and post-graduate schools. I strongly believe that a successful and passionate science student who has a science related career should know this standards and rules/regulations about higher level education after undergraduate school as important as a good camper should carry a map or compass along on a trip no matter how much experienced and familiar he/she is with a particular route ahead of him/her to reach a destination. Yewdell has well-specified the requirements, recommended inclusive, ‘never do’s, irrelevant points and several possible alternatives that could be taken within this trip. This trip in the essay starts from the time of applying to the very last miles before the destination like the ways to become an independent professional up to the climax of becoming a principal investigator (PI). Indicators of the field of studies or graduate school as in whole not being the best fit for one is not hidden in the essay either. The student’s rights to make the decisions in managing the trip to his/her career goal are also specified. Picking a mentor and a laboratory are pointed out being very important parts of the whole experience as they are known in playing a key role in the students present and future achievements in his/her career. As of graduate schools, this Intensive Science Research course is a very crucial way of understanding the concepts carried by this essay as each of us spend around 35 hours of laboratory work per week, attend seminar meetings, shadow each other and discuss our projects, present and teach our colleagues, keep laboratory notebooks and several other things. Specifically in my case, everything does not hold the same for me and my career plans because medical school has a different approach and requirements throughout the processes before, during and after attending compared to graduate school. As the essay continues, in Part II: making discoveries, Yewdell
Literature Cited
Schwartz, MA. The importance of stupidity in scientific research. J Cell Sci. 2008 Jun 1; 121(Pt 11):1771.
Yewdell, JW. How to succeed in science: a concise guide for young biomedical scientists. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2008 May; 9(5):413-6.
Good to hear that you want to be a medical professional later in your life. Do you think stupidity can be rewarding in the medical field? If yes, can you please give an example?
ReplyDeleteRupesh,
ReplyDeleteGreat question. Yes, I think stupidity can be rewarding in the medical field but I also believe that the level of its importance is less than the one in a science research. For instance, not understanding the concept and causes of a disease that has been discovered recently might make a medical student to feel stupid and ask his professors and colleagues about it to have a better understanding of it; but I am also sure that he/she would not be as much clueless and confused about it as the graduate student who has discovered the disease causing organism. In general, developing the feeling of stupidity encounters to all the positive in the process of academia.
Manny,
ReplyDeleteWas it that she could not take the callenge of graduate school or that she did not like how it made her feel? I beleive that this is an important distinction that was made by the author.
-Brennan
Brennan,
ReplyDeleteI am glad you ask me this question if I haven't clearly expressed my understanding about it. It is the second one: she did not like how it made her feel and that's what I have also tried to mention in my post. But I have also included an argument saying that dropping out of graduate school might show her weakness as a decision maker in both getting started with it and not having the patience and guts to finish it. I hope my argument makes sense to you now. Thank you for asking. Great question.