Everyone is aware of scientists are within the enterprise of “discovering” issues. But what precisely do they do? When I used to be rising up in a small village in Kerala, there have been no scientists round to ask this query. Even now, my buddies ask me this query, half joking, half curious. I usually chortle it off and alter the subject.
A greater description of what scientists do is that they create information. We are all shoppers of data. A farmer must know when to sow and reap, a vegetable vendor must know easy methods to carry out primary arithmetic, and an engineer must know easy methods to design a bridge that may stand up to the required load. Usually, we acquire this data from books, lecturers, the web, and many others.
However, we don’t have excellent solutions to many necessary questions that concern us: What are the explanations for the elevated human-animal conflicts? Why do we’ve many extra excessive climate occasions, resembling floods, warmth waves, and landslides? Why are we seeing frequent outbreaks of uncommon viral ailments?
Representative image.
| Photo Credit:
KARUNAKARAN M
Why do science?
The scientific technique is one of the best ways we’ve immediately for creating information. It depends on remark, experiments, and logical reasoning to know pure phenomena. It additionally includes analyzing the accuracy of our information based mostly on proof. To some extent, all of us follow the scientific technique in our day by day lives. Farmers determine the appropriate instances to sow, weed and reap by observing seasons that get repeated yearly. Chefs experiment with substances and proportions earlier than perfecting their fish curry recipe. We use logical reasoning to conclude that it rained final night time after we see all the pieces moist within the morning. If somebody says that their magic drugs will treatment diabetes, we ask for proof for this declare – no less than we should always.
Since science goals to clarify solely pure phenomena, it’s necessary to search out its explanations within the pure world itself. The scientist J.B.S. Haldane had famously mentioned, “When I set up an experiment, I assume that no god, angel, or devil is going to interfere with its course.” It was very troublesome for our ancestors to know pure phenomena resembling lightning and thunderstorms. So they imagined them to be resulting from supernatural causes, such because the fury of the gods. But such explanations weren’t helpful as a result of it was nonetheless not possible to foretell when and the place they might happen.
Science goals to find the bodily legal guidelines that govern pure phenomena. For instance, Isaac Newton found that the pressure that’s accountable for the autumn of an apple is identical one which causes planets to maneuver across the solar. This resulted in his concept of gravity. The second necessary side of the scientific technique is its adherence to proof. If any observations contradict the idea, the idea must be revised or discarded.
By following this technique, science helped us to know the world round us to an awesome extent. The understanding that many ailments are attributable to micro organism and viruses led to the event of medicines and vaccines. Thanks to the vaccines, ailments resembling polio are virtually eradicated from the world. Scientific discoveries additionally led to fashionable expertise. It could be very troublesome for us to think about a world with out electrical energy, motor automobiles, and telephones. The impression of science on our lives has been profound.
A lady scholar working within the laboratory within the Government Higher Secondary School at Chrompet, Madras in 1979.
| Photo Credit:
The Hindu Archives
Being a scientist
How does one turn out to be a scientist? The one important high quality for changing into a very good scientist is curiosity. The quest for information is pushed by curiosity and marvel. These are innate qualities of youngsters. But as we grow old, we ask fewer and fewer questions. Scientists want to keep up these childlike qualities. They additionally have to admit their ignorance. It is normally troublesome for an grownup to say “I don’t know”. But scientists have to get used to this. At the identical time, scientists are additionally very troubled by their ignorance. So they really feel the strain to be taught, to search out out the reality.
But that’s not sufficient. To create new information, one has to have a very good understanding of what’s already recognized. As Newton mentioned, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Of course, nobody can be taught all the pieces that’s recognized. That’s why our schooling has the construction of a pyramid. We all know one thing about many issues. We know a bit of little bit of science, a bit of little bit of historical past, a bit of little bit of literature, and many others. But ultimately, we’re anticipated to know many issues about one thing. That’s why, after we go to varsity and college, we specialize in one topic and be taught it in depth.
Scientists additionally should be imaginative. It takes creativeness to attach the movement of planets with the falling of an apple. Good scientists are as artistic pretty much as good artists. At the identical time, scientists additionally should be sceptics: they should query their very own concepts. The final success of an concept in science will depend on how effectively it may possibly clarify pure phenomena.
Prospective scientists have to grasp the methods of analysis. This contains studying to ask the proper of questions, to carry out experiments and observations fastidiously, to attract conclusions from information with out being biased, to critically consider proof, and so forth. This is normally accomplished by working with senior scientists. Many universities and analysis institutes have such doctoral programmes the place college students work with senior scientists in the direction of a doctoral diploma. But after all, opposite to what many individuals assume, analysis isn’t one thing that ends when one will get a doctorate.
The ‘eureka’ moments that profoundly change the course of science are uncommon within the lifetime of most researchers. Even completed scientists resembling Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar have spoken out in assist of modest pursuits: “Who amongst us can hope, even in imagination, to scale Everest and reach its summit (…) But there is nothing mean or lowly in standing in the valley below and awaiting the sun to rise over Kinchinjunga.”
Representative image.
| Photo Credit:
Freepik
Many huge questions in fashionable science are past the scope of any particular person scientist to reply. The Human Genome Project, which aimed to map all of the genetic particulars of people, concerned scientists from seven nations and took 15 years to finish. Similarly, I’m a part of a world collaboration of over 3,000 scientists from world wide who use massive observatories within the US, Europe, and Japan (and one developing in India) to watch the universe utilizing small ripples in spacetime referred to as gravitational waves. These scientists, who come from totally different backgrounds and have totally different private beliefs, are in a position to work collectively as a result of they observe the foundations of scientific discovery: the scientific technique. All of them are contributing small bricks to the massive edifice of data.
So who can turn out to be a scientist? I’m reminded of the animated movie Ratatouille, which narrates the story of a rat that turns into a unprecedented chef. The rat was merely impressed by the philosophy of a famed Parisian chef, that “anyone can cook.” At the very finish of the movie, the deeper which means of this concept is revealed: “Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere.”
P. Ajith is an astrophysicist on the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, Bengaluru.
Published – February 28, 2026 07:00 am IST
