what motivates scientists to ask why

A fairly common motivation amongst scientists is the sense that this work matters and that it should have a practical application. Then when I got to years 11 and 12 at school, the six-volume Harvard Project Physics sold me completely. All Rights Reserved. Unless you are a charismatic science communicator the likes of Neil deGrasse Tyson and Carl Saganyou are better off looking for social status elsewhere. In one, led by neuroscientist Marieke Jepma and her collaborators, perceptual curiosity was triggered through ambiguous visual input: The researchers showed participants blurry images of common objects. Please tell me the steps that led you to this conclusion. By sweetly asking the question "why" while taking away the judgment and putting ourselves in the middle of the answer, we may even bring the question to a deeper level. This new situationcan be a shock to the system. A primate weighing 165 pounds can support only about 30 billion neurons. Discuss the. [] In a recent blog post here, Pedro outlined some of the reasons for doing science, so naturally I wondered what Ninas were and why did she decide to do a PhD? Editage Insights is funded by Editage and endorses services provided by Editage but is editorially independent. I became interested in whether being Aboriginal online attracted the same sort of scrutiny as Aboriginal people regularly experienced offline. Let us all be accidents that change the world! I believe that changes in scientific knowledge have a significant impact on how scientific research is conducted. "It's about philosophy," Nye said in a much more serious tone. In my work, Ive always been told that I should avoid asking the question "why." from Aayati Sengupta, How outcome switching is rendering clinical trials meaningless, Open Data in Science - Embracing Open Data for Scientific Progress. The network keeps growing, with new sites added every week, so sign up now and submit your URLs within the next few minutes to boost your rankings and get the traffic your pages deserve. When you're more accepting and adoring, your partner seems more adorable to you. Active meditation can prevent intrusive thoughts from sabotaging your practice. The rest is history. Unformatted text preview: surroundings were produced in natural science. I mined through websites and blogs and came across a few researchers who had somehow managed to (for the lack of a better word). Please comment here, and Ill join the conversation. Typically, candidates use an introduction to explain why they chose their careers. Despite reams of empirical evidence, therapists cling to arrogant fiction. Even though, back then, I understood very little of what it would be like to be a researcher, and make no mistake, there are plenty of challenges and hurdles to surmount on this journey, what never failed to inspire me was the utter wonderment of exploring the world of mathematics, much like strolling through the beautiful, mysterious, unfathomably vast and intricate expanse of a forest., I love staying curious and be able to always learn something new and fascinating. Include specific examples to support your response. Postdoctoral Researcher in Palaeobiology, University of New England. Men have long been silent and stoic about their inner lives, but theres every reason for them to open up emotionallyand their partners are helping. To create an introduction, think of your initial response to the question. This can lead to a lifetime of exploration. The thoughts of those who had shared quotes with me were not very different from the Tweets I found. Roughly one-third (32%) of working Ph.D. scientists said a main motivator for their career path was a lifelong interest in science and desire for intellectual challenge, according to the 2014 survey. I still have both sets of textbooks on the bookshelf in my home office. Could You Choose Between a Library and a Police Station? Asking questions is the first step to nurturing curiosity and pushing our knowledge to a new level and in-depth knowledge is a trait of resilient people. 8 min read. You just had to learn more. Passion for scienceis essential but the demands of current academic career structures require something more than pure love. selection, which is what made me curious. More obsessions followed, from plucked violin strings to nuclear fission. So yes, they are stuck, but not so much in limbo between the unpleasing prospect of a career in science and the fear of hanging the pipettes and searching for happiness elsewhere, but they are in that sense beyond fear. Primates manage to cram more neurons into smaller masses. Fortunately, scientists are always asking this question, which is why we understand so much about the . Heres a quick round up of some interesting answers to the questions I was asking: An Editage Insights community member; participant of the, An Editage Insights community member; participant of, Ndayisaba Pierre Celestin An Editage Insights community member; participant of the, Editage Insights six-week challenge for researchers, See more The American physicist Sidney Coleman once said: The career of a young theoretical physicist consists of treating the harmonic oscillator in ever-increasing levels of abstraction. I agree with basically everything except for the last paragraph with which you conclude your 2cents. [1] Kelly OBrien (March 22, 2017). How We Confuse Agency and Motivation at Work, Why You Hate Uncertainty, and How to Cope, What to Do When You Feel Annoyed by Your Partner, Negative Experiences Can Add Meaning to Your Life, Want to Be a Therapist? For some 12% their curiosity was fostered by parents and other family members who brought them in contact with scientists and science labs, nature or science and technology museums. This multidisciplinary, multimethod pursuit, called Motivation Science, is now an emerging field (Kruglanski, Chemikova & Kopez, 2015). If you have to edit your question so as not to ask "why," does it also edit your thinking so that you eventually stop thinking? This skepticism keeps the scientists moving towards making greater, newer and more discoveries. interesting because it proves that the world is evolving. What do they love most about being researchers? Women were slightly more likely than men to say that lab and internship experiences played a significant part in guiding their career path (23% of women scientists vs. 14% of men scientists). Copyright 2023 StudeerSnel B.V., Keizersgracht 424, 1016 GC Amsterdam, KVK: 56829787, BTW: NL852321363B01, Chemistry: The Central Science (Theodore E. Brown; H. Eugene H LeMay; Bruce E. Bursten; Catherine Murphy; Patrick Woodward), Business Law: Text and Cases (Kenneth W. Clarkson; Roger LeRoy Miller; Frank B. My grade school education in science was very poor, which increased the importance of the media exposure. or "Why do trees just stand there?" For example, protection of DNA from permanent UV damage occurs in the context of photosynthesis and nutrient-dependent RNA-directed DNA methylation, which links RNA-mediated amino acid substitutions to DNA repair. Why don't we give you complete access! There is nothing else which can be a big achievement for myself than contributing to the pool of knowledge on the basis of which policies can be designed and changes can happen. It doesnt matter what the work is for, how much benefit it brings to society or even if it was enjoyable. So feel free to reach out and let me know what brought you to research and what keeps you or has kept you motivated through the years. 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Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. I was a scientist for 20 years before I defined myself as a scientist. Original "why": Why have you called this meeting? Indeed, if theres anything the pandemic has made clear, its that the importance of scientific research cant be understated in todays world. Many of us grew up with copious amounts of praise from teachers, family and friends when it comes to intellectual performance. In fact, I would go so far as to argue that had we known these facts about perceptual and epistemic curiosity from the start, we might have chosen different words to describe the two psychological states, rather than using the same wordcuriosityfor both. Curiosity, after all, its the engine of learning. Not all difficulties and misfortunes that cause suffering are symptoms of mental illness. Curiosity probably played a crucial role in this mix, through a feedback loop. Interviewers might appreciate hearing a detailed response about technology, statistics and the data science life cycle, which would prove your expertise. It turns out that not all brains are built by the same scaling rules. "What does kind mean?" Spend time today looking at the world from the perspective of what more might you like to know about what you are seeing. Why Do Women Remember More Dreams Than Men Do? Learn more in Meeting society's needsin our Science and societysection. //-->