Scientific
Research. The term itself is widely associated with boredom, long sleepless
nights, stress and aimlessness. With all negative factors attributed to it,
here we are, swimming against odds in scientific research stream to make our
own mark. Keeping all convictions apart, thinking with an unbiased mind can
actually give us quite a few good reasons to love scientific research, which
has become a part of our lives.
From mentee to mentor
As
we enter the cutthroat competitive world of scientific research, we are naïve
and fresh. Research, being a time consuming process, gives us ample time to get
mentored, polished and trained by those experienced intellectuals around us,
who struggled through these same paths and made it to the top. Learning is an
active process in research. We learn by observing, reading, comprehending,
proactively participating, contributing, critically analyzing as well as
getting evaluated and constantly appraised. The development occurs in varying
realms of human character including academic, intellectual, personal, social
and interpersonal levels. Our professional and personal lives evolve in unison
to a state where we become equipped enough to mentor the younger generations
exactly from the point where we started. That is a beautiful and fulfilling
journey. We have come a long way from the periods of self-taught geniuses and
taboos linked to science. Today, each of us can choose how and from whom to
learn and eventually how and to whom to propagate that wholesome
knowledge.
The pleasure of discovery
To
be honest, most of us got into research in the first place because we did not
clearly know what to do after earning a master's degree. Whatever glorified
reasons we convinced ourselves, interview boards and potential mentors, there
was one small part of our brain which was honest enough to admit that we really
didn't have any idea what to do with life. As we move forward in our snail pace
scientific journey in graduate school and initial years of post doctoral
training, our aims may still not be clear to most of us. But as we progress,
co-evolving with science, influencing each other, we find ourselves in a unique
spot where we actually enjoy the very prospect of finding something new and
useful. We get excited at the prospect that our small but significant finding
can actually be a stepping stone to a greater good of humanity. It's a matter
of immense pride and pleasure to know that our efforts could unravel the
mysteries of universe a tiny bit more and help man understand life a tiny bit
better.
A noble reason to gain knowledge
Knowledge
has never come free of cost. We pay right from our schooling years to gain
knowledge. How many times have we thought not to vest time in gaining knowledge
in a particular subject just because we couldn't find time to learn or afford
to pay for it? Moreover, as we move forward in our respective careers, we have
to take time off from our professional lives to get time and energy for gaining
additional knowledge. That's where we become lucky. Here we are, officially
assigned in a profession where we get paid to seek and gain knowledge. No other
profession on earth gives more scope and space to feed our inner hunger for
knowledge. This is, in fact, one of the few professions in life where random
thoughts and haphazard voyages of our forebrain can be polished and sharpened
to any level of sensible information. And the best of all, we get returns in
the form of remuneration, accolades and potential betterment of mankind for our
commitment. Albert Einstein believed that if he had a full time real job
instead of his boring and monotonous job in a patent office, he would have
never had adequate time to think and explore and he wouldn't even have thought
of the Theory of Relativity. We are all bestowed with a rare opportunity of
endlessly seeking knowledge which many can only dream about. So buckle up and
make the most out of our time, energy and efforts.
The allowance of failure
As
we walk into an Emergency Room of any hospital, how many times have we
sincerely wished not to fall a prey in the hands of a training intern? How many
times have we told a handyman not to learn how to fix something by tinkering on
our expensive electronic device? How many times have we called an after sales
maintenance team asking them to send in an expert and not a trainee to fix our
appliances? The gist is, no profession allows us the room to fail. A failure is
always regarded an equivalent of inefficiency in all strata of professional
ladder. Scientific research is, in fact, the only stream on this planet where
failures are counted as alternate strategies to success. No experiment is
useless, irrespective of the end result. The peculiarity of scientific research
is that even a negative finding, absence of a finding or the failure of a
technique by itself is an achievement. It brings us closer to the right path
and our failures are in a way justified as learning curve. Isn't it a wonderful
opportunity for each of us to have the freedom to make mistakes and learn from
them?
Gain a foothold
There
is a stark contrast between passion and profession. Passion, if not of monetary
gain, becomes a burden in the long run whereas profession, if not exciting
enough, eventually becomes monotony. There's no denying that how much ever
passionate we are in our profession, unless it consistently helps us win bread
for our family and secures our social existence, the quality of our work gets compromised.
For all the above mentioned good reasons, if research becomes our passion, that
is the best reason to make it our profession. A respectable scientific person gets peer acceptance, financial security and social esteem
which only a few other professions provide. Isn't that, indeed, the most selfish
yet pleasant reason to love our research?
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