Advice for a Young Investigator

Santiago Ramon y Cajal

Quotes

Foreword

Hard work, ambition, patience, humility, seriousness, and passion for work, family, and country were among the traits he considered essential. But above all, master technique and produce original data; all the rest will follow.

Introduction

… the most brilliant discoveries have not relied on a formal knowledge of logic. Instead, their discoverers have had an acute inner logic that generates ideas with the same unstudied unconsciousness that allowed Jourdain to create prose.

Let me assert without further ado that there are no rules of logic for making discoveries, let alone for converting those lacking a natural talent for thinking logically into successful researchers. As for geniuses, it is well-known that they have difficulty bowing to rules – they prefer to make them instead. Condorcet has noted that “The mediocre can be educated; geniuses educate themselves”.

Chapter 2 (Beginner’s Traps)

It is very common for those beginning their scientific explorations with some success to do so by weakening the pedestal of an historic or contemporary hero. By way of classic examples, recall Galileo refuting Aristotle’s view of gravity, Copernicus tearing down Ptolemy’s system of the universe, …

Two phases may often be noted in the careers of learned investigators. First there is the productive time devoted to the elimination of past errors and the illumination of new data, and it is followed by the mature or intellectual phase (which does not necessarily coincide with old age) when scientific productivity declines and the hypotheses incubated during youth are defended with paternal affection from the attacks of newcomers.

Even in the most exact sciences there are always some laws that are maintained exclusively through the force of authority. To demonstrate their inaccuracy with new research is always an excellent way to begin genuine scientific work.

However, it is not enough to destroy – one must also build. Scientific criticism is justified only by establishing truth in place of error.

The most important problems are already solved

In summary, there are no small problems. Problems that appear small are large problems that are not understood. Instead of tiny details unworthy of the intellectual, we have men whose tiny intellects cannot rise to penetrate the infinitesimal. Nature is a harmonious mechanism where all parts, including those appearing to play a secondary role, cooperate in the functional whole. In contemplating this mechanism, shallow men arbitrarily divide its parts into essential and secondary, whereas the insightful thinker is content with classifying them as understood and poorly understood, ignoring for the moment their size and immediately useful properties. No one can predict their importance in the future.

Perceived lack of ability

…, discoveries are not the fruit of outstanding talent, but rather of common sense enhanced and strengthened by technical education and a habit of thinking about scientific problems. +Footnote: It is common sense to work under considerable stress.

Deficiencies of innate ability may be compensated for through persistent hard work and concentration.

Do not forget that reading and thinking about masterpieces allows one to assimilate much of the skill that created them…

… as a very common compensation slow brains have great endurance for prolonged concentration. They open wide, deep furrows in problems, whereas facile brains often tire quickly after scarcely clearing the land.

As compensation, those with short memories for words and phrases seem to enjoy excellent retention of ideas and logical arguments.

To pursue fully the topic of our research with the limited facilities that we have, let us forget unrelated pursuits and the parasitic ideas connected with the futile trifles of everyday life. Using strength and perseverance, concentrate deeply only on information pertinent to the question at hand. During the gestation period of our work, sentence ourselves to ignorance of everything else that is going on – politics, literature, music, and idle gossip. There are occasions when ignorance is a great virtue, almost a state of heroism. Useless books distract attention and are thus weighty, occupying as much space in our brains as on the library shelf. They can spoil or hinder mental adjustments to the problem at hand. Although popular opinion may not agree, “Knowledge occupies space”.

Chapter 3 (Intellectual Qualities)

The investigator should display some happy combination of these traits: an artistic temperament that impels him to search for and admire the number, beauty, and harmony of things; and – in the struggle for life that ideas create in our minds – a sound critical judgment that is able to reject the rash impulses of daydreams in favor of those thoughts most faithfully embracing objective reality.

Independent judgement

High-minded independence of judgement is a dominant trait shown by eminent investigators. They are not spellbound or overly impressed by the work of their predecessors and mentors but instead observe carefully and question. […] Most importantly, however, they were ambitious and exacting individualists with extraordinarily bold critical insight. […] excessive fondness for tradition, along with obstinate determination to maintain scientific formulations of the past, reflect either indomitable mental laziness or a blanket to cover mistakes.

If we feel spent after thought-provoking reading, allow a few days to pass. Then go on with a cool head and calm judgment to a second or even third reading. Little by little, deficiencies become apparent and flimsy logic is revealed.

… inferior intellect adapts better to error, which almost always involves a simple answer, than to truth, which is often rigorous and difficult.

Concentration

… minds finely suited to scientific investigation who retreat discouraged from a problem without seriously measuring their strength, perhaps just at the moment when nature was about to reward their eagerness with the anxiously awaited revelation. Our classrooms and laboratories are full of these capricious and restless souls who love research and suffer through mishaps with the retort or microscope day after day. Their feverish activity yields an avalanche of lectures, articles, and books – upon which they have lavished a great deal of scholarship and talent. […] make it impossible to state what partial or positive progress had been made. These are the inevitable fruits of negligence or excessive lack of focus.

To bring scientific investigation to a happy end once appropriate methods have been determined, we must hold firmly in mind the goal of the project.

One must achieve total absorption; expectation and focused attention are not enough. We must take advantage of all lucid moments, whether they occur during the meditation following prolonged rest; during the super-intense mental work nerve cells achieve when fired by concentration; or during scientific discussion, whose impact often generates unanticipated intuition like sparks from steel.

During the so-called intellectual incubation period, the investigator should ignore everything unrelated to the problem of interest, like a somnambulist attending only to the voice of the hypnotist. In the lecture room, on walks, in the theater, in conversation, and even in reading for pleasure, seek opportunities for insight, comparisons, and hypotheses that add at least some clarity to the problem one is obsessed with.

If a solution fails to appear after all of this, and yet we feel success is just around the corner, try resting for a while. Several weeks of relaxation and quiet in the countryside brings calmness and clarity to the mind. Like the early morning frost, this intellectual refreshment withers the parasitic and nasty vegetation that smothers the good seed.

Travel has the same virtue of renewing thought and dissipating tiring preoccupations…

The secret lies in the method of work; in taking advantage of as much time as possible for the activity; in not retiring for the day until at least two or three hours are dedicated to the task; in wisely constructing a dike in front of the intellectual dispersion and waste of time required by social activity; and finally, in avoiding as much as possible the malicious gossip of the cafe and other entertainment – which squanders our nervous energy (sometimes even causing disgust) and draws us away from our main task with childish conceits and futile pursuits.

As Payot wisely noted, “A little each day is enough, as long as a little is produced each day.”

In summary, all great work is the fruit of patience and perseverance, combined with tenacious concentration on a subject over a period of months or even years.

… constant thinking about the same problem.

Buffon said unreservedly, “Genius is simply patience carried to the extreme”. To those who asked how he achieved fame he replied: “By spending ofrty years of my life bent over my writing desk.”

Thus, it is clear beyond doubt that great scientific undertakings require intellectual vigor, as well as severe discipline of the will and continuous subordination of all one’s mental powers to an object of study.

Passion for reputation

… two emotions must be unusually strong in the great scientific scholar: a devotion to truth and a passion for reputation. The dominance of these two zeals explains the entire life of the investigator.

Chapter 4 (What Newcomers to Biological Research Should Know)

General education

As Laplace has pointed out, to discover is to bring together two ideas that were previously unlinked.

The need for specialisation

It is too easy to run around on the shoal of encyclopaedic learning, where minds incapable of orderliness – who are restless, undisciplined, and unable to concentrate attention on a single idea for any length of time – tend to stop. Rotating inclinations, as a highly original physician-writer has called them, may create great writers, delightful conversationalists, and illustrous orators, but rarely scientific discoverers.

How monographs should be read

So many beginners fall into the trap of considering old or even ancient discoveries as the fruit of their own labor simply because they relied on secondary sources instead of consulting original reports!

Thus, the investigator has a strict obligation to read an author’s original work if he wishes to avoid disagreeable surprises – unless the abstract is by the author himself. Here at least, we may find original and guiding ideas that can be used to real advantage in analytical work, despite their brevity.

… no inquiry should be started without having all the relevant literature at hand.

Mastery of technique

Mastery of technique is so important that without fear of contradiction it may be stated that great discoveries are in the hands of the finest and most knowledgeable experts on one or more of the analytical methods. Through intense application, the masters have learned all of the secrets that the technique may have to offer.

This is where I probably disagree:

The latest research techniques can be given preference, but first priority must go to the most difficult because they are the least exploited […] Moreover, difficult techniques provide us the inestimable advantage of proceeding almost alone, finding very few imitators and competitors along the way.

In search of original data

…, scrupulous and repeated consideration of the same data eventually yields a supersensitive, refined, analytical perception of whatever is relevant to the chosen problem.

…, it is very rare indeed to have the good fortune of starting out with a promising study that actually produces an important discovery, and no wise investigator counts very much on doing so. Therefore, we must not hesitate when beginning our work to follow up someone else’s discovery. This is a useful task ,and useful results will follow.

The many problems raised by a new scientific discovery are fertile ground for the young investigator. […] He will find a host of rivals attempting to surpass him, and can excel only by virtue of hard work, clear-sightedness, and perseverance.

Finally, when we discover ourselves surrounded by a number of equally promising and fertile problems to work on, choose the one whose methodology we understand clearly, and the one we have a decided liking for. […] our intellect redoubles its efforts when perceiving the reward of pleasure or utility in the distance.

Chapter 5 (Diseases of the Will)

Tackle small problems first, so that if success smiles and strength increases one may then undertake the great feats of investigation.

The dreamers who are reminiscent of the conversationalist of old might be seen as a variety of megalomaniac. They are easily distinguished by their effervescence and by a profusion of ideas and plans of attack. Their optimistic eye see everything through rose-colored glasses. They are confident that, once accepted, fruits of their initiative will open broad horizons in science, and yield invaluable practical results as well. There is only one minor drawback, which is deplorable – none of their undertakings are ever completed.

The truth is that dreamers do not work hard enough; they lack perseverance. As Gracian has so aptly pointed out in his Oraculo Manual: Some people spend all at the start and finish nothing; they invent but do not progress; everything stops short of completion…

In short, the beginner should devote maximal effort to discovering original facts by making precise observations, carrying out useful experiments, and providing accurate descriptions. He will use hypotheses as inspiration during the planning stage of an investigation, and for stimulating new fields of investigation. If, in spite of everything, he feels compelled to create vast scientific generalisations, let him do so later on when the abundant observations he has reaped have earned for him a solid reputation. […] And if fortune smiles, he will someday wear the double crown of investigator and philosopher.

Working beside an industrious and gifted scholar, he who is lacking in will power can receive the baptism of fire in research.

Chapter 6 (Social Factors Beneficial to Scientific Work)

In scientific work, means are virtually nothing whereas the person is almost everything.

… it is much better to work alone, especially if guidance leaves something to be desired. Let books be our masters – wise mentors, serene, no bad temper, and no momentary lapses in ability. […] To fashion a strong brain, an original mind that is ours alone – this is the preliminary work that is absolutely essential. […] “Be yourself!” There is nob etter way of achieving this than by working alone.

…, there is poverty of will, rather than lack of means. Enthusiasm and perseverance work miracles.

Nothing highlights the energetic personality of the investigator better, distinguishing him from the throng of automatons in science, than those discoveries where perseverance and logic get the upper hand over mechanics, where the brain is paramount and material facilities are negligible.

🙃:

… a man truly worthy of the title Homo socialis loathes routine and privilege, reveres justice, and in many cases places the cause of humanity above the interests of his family. Because of this, the mother is eager to live only in the memory of her children, whereas the father aspires to survive in the annals of history as well.

Chapter 7 (Stages of Scientific Research)

Observation

Perez de Ayala has stated it very wisely and skilfully: “Look at things as if for the very first time.” That is, admire them afresh, disregarding what we remember from books, stilted descriptions, and conventional wisdom.

…, he who studies an object with an endless sense of pleasure finally discerns interesting details and unusual properties that escape the thoughtless attention of those who work in a routine way.

…, observation will be accompanied by sketching because, in addition to other advantages, the act of representing something disciplines and strengthens attention.

When we are not entirely satisfied with the results, even though the appropriate technique was used, we must repeat the experiments as many times as necessary to obtain everything that the method can provide.

Working hypotheses

(1) A hypothesis is necessary; without it phenomena cannot be explained. […] (5) If possible, hypotheses should also suggest new research and arguments.

… the significant role played by the imagination in formulating good and useful theories. […] Good or bad, a conjecture (or any attempt whatsoever at explanation) should always be our guide. No one searches without a plan.

… hypotheses are the first murmurings of reason in the darkness of the unknown.

To observe without thinking is as dangerous as thinking without observing. Hypothesis is our most valuable intellectual tool, …

Proof

… in man’s intellectual life, as in the mental life of animals, the harmful thing is not change, but regression and atavism. Change automatically suggests vigor, plasticity, and youth. In contrast, rigidity is synonymous with rest, cerebral lassitude, and paralysis of thought; in other words, fatal inertia – certain harbinger of decrepitude and death.

Chapter 8 (On Writing Scientific Papers)

No matter how exact and minute the verbal descripton may be, it will always be less clear than a good illustration.

Do not forget the well-known maxim of Boileau: “That which is well conceived is stated clearly.”

Chapter 9 (The Investigator as Teacher)

The clear-sighted teacher will find another type of student much more worthy of attention. They are somewhat head-strong, contemptuous of first place prizes, and immune to the inducements of vanity. They are endowed with an abundance of restless imagination and spend their extra energy pursuing literature, art, philosophy, and all the various recreations of mind and body. To a distant observer, it would appear as though they are spreading their energy too thin, whereas in reality they are channeling and strengthening it. […] They scorn material gain. and high academic rank, and their noble minds are captivated by lofty ideas. In contrast to the others, they really begin to study after leaving the classroom.

“The most important quality of the scholar is originality, that is, the ability to picture something beyond what is taught. Precision is one’s work, self-criticism, conscientiousness, knowledge, and skill are also necessary, but all can be acquired later through suitable education.” (Ostwald, ‘Great Men’)

… must be in friendly contact with his students. In his laboratory discussions he should treat them like colleagues working on a common goal, encouraging frankness and spontaneous expression.

The future scientist is typically an ardent patriot who is eager to bring honor to himself and to his country, captivated by originality, indifferent to material gain and ordinary pleasures, inclined more toward action than words, and an untiring reader. In short, he is capable of all sorts of sacrifices to achieve the noble dream of giving his own name to some new star in the firmament of knowledge.

Footnote: Nature has been merciful to the aged, granting the brain the sublime privilege of resisting more than any other organ the inexorable process of degeneration