I recently read Ignorance – How it drives science by Stuart Firestein which exposed me to an interesting way to look at how the world of pure science progresses. I bumped into his Ted talk (browsing ted.com and bumping into talks which then lead to books, is now my favorite weekly ritual) and it opened my mind to how science can be thought of as on a mission to bring forth more ignorance into the world. The point is actually quite interesting and I link the original talk below for how intuitively Stuart makes it.
We often think all scientists do is frame hypotheses and then do experiments to prove or disprove it. In fact most scientists focus on finding anomalies and coming up with the right questions to forward their research. This is the crux of this book. The idea that you need to discover your own ignorance by asking the right set of questions. In that sense, doing science is all about asking questions to arrive at better questions.
James Clerk Maxwell, probably the greatest physicist between Newton and Einstein, said, “Thoroughly conscious ignorance … is a prelude to every real advance in knowledge.” This perspective on science—that it is about the questions more than the answers—should come as something of a relief.
quoted from the book
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It all boils down to asking the right questions. Which questions are right? According to this book, two characteristics make for a good question. One, that it leads somewhere and two, that it connects to something else. Most research dies when it brings forth good discoveries but those discoveries are isolated and don’t connect to anything worthwhile.
There was an interesting example in the book that explains how one question can lead to some bigger question. The research in question was around how recognising oneself in a mirror is a unique sign of consciousness in humans. A research was undertaken to see how marine animals like dolphins would react to mirrors and the results were quite revealing. It was found that dolphins, who were specifically chosen for this experiment as their brain size in proportion to their body was similar to humans, performed experiments by moving around in front of the mirrors and finally recognised themselves in them. This refuted the earlier claim that such self mirror recognition was unique to primates. This finally connected to the question around what is mind and what are the characteristics of brain that brings forth a consciousness.
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‘Model system’ of exploring the unknown is using smaller questions to come to big ones as we saw in the dolphin study. The author, Stuart Firestein, is currently involved in exploring the olfactory system of, wait for it, Salamanders. If you read that, you will no doubt feel it is a highly academic endeavour with little or no connection to the ‘real world’ around us. Here’s where you are wrong. The reason the author is doing his olfactory research on Salamanders, is because they are have larger cells and are easier to work on in labs.
Why the olfactory system? Our sense of smell is still a big mystery. That we can smell the difference between things which are almost chemically identical, makes our noses the best molecular detection system on the planet. Studying it can form the basis of understanding how a molecular detection works and how we can create ones of our own. Another interesting concept of the olfactory system is how the concerned neurons are constantly replaced by new ones, even as we grow older. This has the potential of ‘leading’ to understanding how damaged cells can be replaced (read anti-aging). This research is a great example of how model thinking works. How a question of how “do salamanders smell things” can lead us to bigger questions of “aging” and “molecular detection”.
This is a really intriguing work. A short book that you can finish in a sitting and the witty anecdotes from various scientists and mathematicians makes it fun and engaging.
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