How to get ideas for a scientific project?
The importance of inspiration and perspiration in scientific research.
Cambridge University was closed due to the Great Plague between the fall of 1665 and 1667. At that time, Isaac Newton was on the farm inherited from his parents in Woolsthorpe, the UK, trying to avoid the infection. As he looked out the window, Newton saw an apple fall and observed that the force that pulled the apple to the centre of the Earth was the same that acted on the moon, making it spin around our planet. This idea was a glow of inspiration that revolutionized all modern science, leading him to write the Principia.
Something similar occurred with Albert Einstein, who used a mental experiment to verify that someone cannot distinguish between to be attracted by gravity or to be in an accelerated elevator. That is, let us suppose that g is the acceleration of gravity on Earth. If we are inside an elevator accelerated g m/s², then we cannot distinguish if we are on Earth or in the elevator. Assume that the elevator has no windows and that you do not remember why you were there. Einstein concluded that gravity is not a force of attraction, but a curvature in the fabric of space-time.
There are countless other cases where scientists have had these sparkles of inspiration, including Friedrich Kekulé. He had a dream in 1825 in which a snake bit its tail. From this image, he discovered the structure of benzene. More recently, the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2020, Roger Penrose, has stated that he got a glimpse of inspiration in 1964. Penrose was walking with his friend Ivor Robinson, a British scientist, through the neighbourhood of his office at Birkbeck University in London. As he crossed the street, in a moment of silence, Penrose began to mentally travel to 2.5 billion light-years, throughout space to the boiling mass of a rotating quasar. Penrose imagined how gravitational collapse pulled an entire galaxy closer and closer to its centre. From this idea, he managed to explain how the singularity could form and helped to confirm Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. His theory also proved the possibility of the existence of black holes.
These examples show that inspiration plays a fundamental role in science, as well as in arts, where a poet can never write a poem if he/she is not inspired. On the other hand, sometimes it is not pointed out that all these scientists have been working for years, maybe even decades, on the problem that led to the inspiration. More specifically, inspiration comes after a lot of work. So, to have an innovative idea, inspiration is not enough. It’s necessary to have deep knowledge about the problem we are studying and to think a lot about it. Einstein worked all the time on the Theory of General Relativity and did so until the last minutes of his life (see in the following picture how was his work desk, the day he passed away). This obsession for a problem and attempt to solve it is one of the main characteristics of a scientist. That’s why we hear the anecdotes of distracted scientists, like Einstein and Newton, who often forgot to have lunch.
Let us return to our initial question: How to have ideas for a scientific project? There is no single answer, and I will discuss my opinion here, which many may not agree. Note that my research is related to Complex Systems and Data Science. It involves theoretical study (mathematical models) and simulations, as well as data analysis using machine learning and statistics. My research ranges from mathematical modelling of epidemic processes and synchronization in complex networks to the development of automatic diagnosis methods for mental disorders. For an experimental scientist, perhaps my ideas need to be adjusted.
So let’s go. First, to have an innovative idea we need to choose a research area we are really interested in because motivation is fundamental. Next, we select books and related papers and study hard. With this study, we must question what has already been discovered. A basic premise of Science, as Neil de Grasse Tyson said in Cosmos, is that “the scientist must question everything”. Science only advances when it is tested to the limit, without prejudice. Thus, it is important to question what is being developed in our research area. Moreover, an essential point is that we need to reproduce some important works. For example, implementing a mathematical model in a computer or even an experiment with cultures of fungi, are crucial steps in the development of a research project in computing or biology. Reproducibility is one of the pillars of the Scientific Method! An experiment that cannot be reproduced, cannot be confirmed, and therefore has no scientific validity. We only trust in Science because it is reproducible. Furthermore, Science is dynamic, so that a theory is only true as long as it agrees with the experiments. If an experiment does not agree with a theory, this theory must be adjusted or even abandoned. This is one of the ideas by Karl Popper, one of the greatest philosophers of science of the 20th century. Popper argued that a scientific theory will always be conjectural and provisional — this idea is called Critical Rationalism.
After studying a theme in depth and reproducing some important experiments, or even performing mathematical demonstrations, we are ready for the next step: we can propose a question to investigate. Einstein once said that “if I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions”. This step is not always clear to new scientists, but it is fundamental to first organize the ideas and ask the right question we want to investigate. A scientific project must be developed from a question and a hypothesis, associated with that question. From there, we develop our research.
However, before we start trying to answer the question, it is important to check if someone has not answered it yet. For this, it is crucial to carry out a thorough review of the literature, looking for the articles in repositories, such as Web of Science or Scopus. If the problem has not been solved yet, then we have a topic for research.
From the question formulated, we just have to follow the next steps of the Scientific Method. (Richard Feynman presents the Scientific Method in 60 seconds in this link).
Before finishing, it is important to comment that scientific research is not always linear. Sometimes, discovery is born from a genuine interest. For example, a student may be very fond of arts and decide to investigate whether a machine learning method can predict the style of painters according to artistic movement. He can study whether these differences in style can be captured by a machine learning method and whether it is possible to develop an artificial art scholar, that can recognize the importance of new paintings. Or yet, someone interested in children’s education can verify the influence of nonviolent communication on learning. To investigate a subject hard and reach a significant discovery, the scientist must like very much what he/she are studying in. In Science, it doesn’t matter the discovery, but the way to get to it. It’s like climbing a mountain, it doesn’t matter to reach a peak, but the walk and the challenge to get there. A scientist is not only pleased with the discoveries, but with the whole investigative walk, where he/she learns and contributes in advancing the knowledge, publishing papers, books and, most importantly, preparing students for future discoveries. Science is not the work of a single individual, but a task done by many hands. As Newton said in 1675, “if I saw it any further, it was because it was on the shoulders of giants”. Even if we don’t arrive at a great discovery that will revolutionize science, like Newton’s, let’s enjoy the walk. Learning is fun!
If you are curious about my research, check out this link: https://sites.icmc.usp.br/francisco.
See you next time!
