The real and lasting pleasure in a discovery comes not so much from the accomplishment itself as from the possibility of using it as a stepping stone for fresh adventures.
Common sequence in an investigation:
a) The relevant literature is critically reviewed.
b) A thorough collection of field data or equivalent observational inquiry is conducted, and is supplemented if necessary by laboratory examination o specimens
c) Th information obtained is marshaled and correlated and the problem is defined and broken down into specific questions.
d) Intelligent guesses are made to answer he questions, as many hypotheses as possible being considered
e) Experiments are devised to test first the likeliest hypotheses bearing on the most crucial questions.
A crucial experiment is one which gives a result consistent with one hypothesis and inconsistent with another.
In the field of observation, chance favors only the prepared mind. -- Pasteur
On Chance
New knowledge very often has its origin in some quite unexpected observation or chance occurrence arising during an investigation. The importance of this factor in discovery should be fully appreciated and research workers ought deliberately to exploit it. Opportunities come more frequently to active bench workers and people who dabble in novel procedures. Interpreting the clue and realizing its possible significance requires knowledge without fixed ideas, imagination, scientific taste, and a habit of contemplating all unexplained observations.
The imaginative vision and faith in the ultimate success are indispensable, The pure rationalist has not place here. -- Max Planck
Generalizations may be regarded as patterns in ideas.
In research, taste plays an important part in choosing profitable subjects for investigation, in recognizing promising clues, in intuition, in deciding on a course of action where there are few facts with which to reason, in discarding hypotheses that require too any modifications an in forming an opinion on new discoveries before the evidence is decisive.
As with other tastes, taste in science will only be found in people with a genuine love of science. Our taste derives from the summation of all that we have learnt from others, experienced and thought.
Most people do not realize how often opinions that are supposed to be based on reason are in fact but rationalizations of prejudice or subjective motives.There is a very considerable part of scientific thinking where there is not enough sound knowledge to allow of effective reasoning and here the judgment will inevitably be largely influenced by taste.
Often in research our thoughts and actions have to be guided by personal judgment based on scientific taste.
The origin of discoveries is beyond the reach of reason.
Effective observation involves noticing something and giving it significance by relating it to something else noticed or already known; thus it contains both a element of sense-perception and a mental element.
The mental resistance to new ideas is partly due to the fact that they have to displace established ideas. New facts are not usually accepted unless they can be correlated with the existing body of knowledge.
Persecution of great discoverers was due partly to mental resistance to new ideas and partly to the disturbance caused to the entrenched authority and vested interests, intellectual and material.
Work with some clear object in view but nevertheless keep alert for and seize any unexpected opportunities.
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