Curiosity and distress

‘Research is the process of going up alleys to see if they are blind’

I came across that quote (from the zoologist Marston Bates) during a particularly low period in my research career, nothing seemed to be working. The days of failed experiments stretched into weeks and then months, with no end is site. The quote mirrored my mode.

At first Bate’s words seemed like a dark description of the scientific method that chimed with the distress I felt after yet another fruitless week in the lab. It conjured up an image of me, a lost scientist wondering down one street after another, repeatedly hitting dead-ends and having to double back to the point where I started. And as a result achieving nothing for my efforts.

That evening I nursed a beer whilst dwelling on the quote and considering my options. Maybe research science wasn’t for me after all. Perhaps I should try something that felt less like wondering around in the dark. And then it occurred to me that Marston may have left a word out. Perhaps the quote should read

Research is the process of, systematically, going up alleys to see if they are blind.

If I treated every failure as a setback, as I was doing at the time, then I was without hope of reaching my goal. But that one word changed everything, no longer was I haphazardly wondering around trying to…