1 00:00:01,519 --> 00:00:04,294 What I'm going to do is to just give a few notes, 2 00:00:04,294 --> 00:00:08,110 and this is from a book I'm preparing called 3 00:00:08,110 --> 00:00:10,535 "Letters to a Young Scientist." 4 00:00:10,535 --> 00:00:12,686 I'd thought it'd be appropriate to 5 00:00:12,686 --> 00:00:17,775 present it, on the basis that I have had extensive experience 6 00:00:17,775 --> 00:00:21,471 in teaching, counseling scientists across a broad array of fields. 7 00:00:21,471 --> 00:00:26,870 And you might like to hear some of the principles that I've developed in doing 8 00:00:26,870 --> 00:00:28,551 that teaching and counseling. 9 00:00:28,551 --> 00:00:31,449 So let me begin by urging you, 10 00:00:31,449 --> 00:00:33,998 particularly you on the youngsters' side, 11 00:00:33,998 --> 00:00:35,974 on this path you've chosen, 12 00:00:35,974 --> 00:00:37,878 to go as far as you can. 13 00:00:37,878 --> 00:00:41,346 The world needs you, badly. 14 00:00:41,346 --> 00:00:45,864 Humanity is now fully into the techno-scientific age. 15 00:00:45,864 --> 00:00:48,343 There is going to be no turning back. 16 00:00:48,343 --> 00:00:53,268 Although varying among disciplines -- say, astrophysics, 17 00:00:53,268 --> 00:00:57,230 molecular genetics, the immunology, the microbiology, the public 18 00:00:57,230 --> 00:01:03,424 health, to the new area of the human body as a symbiont, 19 00:01:03,424 --> 00:01:05,905 to public health, environmental science. 20 00:01:05,905 --> 00:01:09,021 Knowledge in medical science and science overall 21 00:01:09,021 --> 00:01:12,158 is doubling every 15 to 20 years. 22 00:01:12,158 --> 00:01:15,246 Technology is increasing at a comparable rate. 23 00:01:15,246 --> 00:01:18,230 Between them, the two already pervade, 24 00:01:18,230 --> 00:01:21,094 as most of you here seated realize, 25 00:01:21,094 --> 00:01:23,479 every dimension of human life. 26 00:01:23,479 --> 00:01:28,535 So swift is the velocity of the techno-scientific revolution, 27 00:01:28,535 --> 00:01:33,262 so startling in its countless twists and turns, that no one can predict 28 00:01:33,262 --> 00:01:37,710 its outcome even a decade from the present moment. 29 00:01:37,710 --> 00:01:39,407 There will come a time, of course, 30 00:01:39,407 --> 00:01:43,158 when the exponential growth of discovery and knowledge, 31 00:01:43,158 --> 00:01:45,294 which actually began in the 1600s, 32 00:01:45,294 --> 00:01:48,110 has to peak and level off, 33 00:01:48,110 --> 00:01:49,358 but that's not going to matter to you. 34 00:01:49,358 --> 00:01:50,672 The revolution is going to continue 35 00:01:50,672 --> 00:01:53,630 for at least several more decades. 36 00:01:53,630 --> 00:01:55,374 It'll render the human condition 37 00:01:55,374 --> 00:01:57,720 radically different from what it is today. 38 00:01:57,720 --> 00:02:04,038 Traditional fields of study are going to continue to grow 39 00:02:04,038 --> 00:02:08,863 and in so doing, inevitably they will meet and create new disciplines. 40 00:02:08,863 --> 00:02:12,710 In time, all of science will come to be 41 00:02:12,710 --> 00:02:18,166 a continuum of description, an explanation of networks, of principles and laws. 42 00:02:18,166 --> 00:02:21,366 That's why you need not just be training 43 00:02:21,366 --> 00:02:25,806 in one specialty, but also acquire breadth in other fields, 44 00:02:25,806 --> 00:02:29,494 related to and even distant from your own initial choice. 45 00:02:29,494 --> 00:02:33,439 Keep your eyes lifted and your head turning. 46 00:02:33,439 --> 00:02:36,504 The search for knowledge is in our genes. 47 00:02:36,504 --> 00:02:40,016 It was put there by our distant ancestors 48 00:02:40,016 --> 00:02:41,639 who spread across the world, 49 00:02:41,639 --> 00:02:43,334 and it's never going to be quenched. 50 00:02:43,334 --> 00:02:46,527 To understand and use it sanely, 51 00:02:46,527 --> 00:02:50,486 as a part of the civilization yet to evolve 52 00:02:50,486 --> 00:02:56,328 requires a vastly larger population of scientifically trained people like you. 53 00:02:56,328 --> 00:03:00,366 In education, medicine, law, diplomacy, 54 00:03:00,366 --> 00:03:04,654 government, business and the media that exist today. 55 00:03:04,654 --> 00:03:09,614 Our political leaders need at least a modest degree of scientific 56 00:03:09,614 --> 00:03:12,710 literacy, which most badly lack today -- 57 00:03:12,710 --> 00:03:14,254 no applause, please. 58 00:03:14,254 --> 00:03:16,712 It will be better for all 59 00:03:16,712 --> 00:03:21,383 if they prepare before entering office rather than learning on the job. 60 00:03:21,383 --> 00:03:24,542 Therefore you will do well to act on the side, 61 00:03:24,542 --> 00:03:27,247 no matter how far into the laboratory 62 00:03:27,247 --> 00:03:30,566 you may go, to serve as teachers 63 00:03:30,566 --> 00:03:32,574 during the span of your career. 64 00:03:32,574 --> 00:03:34,649 I'll now proceed quickly, 65 00:03:34,649 --> 00:03:37,838 and before else, to a subject that is both a vital asset 66 00:03:37,838 --> 00:03:41,270 and a potential barrier to a scientific career. 67 00:03:41,270 --> 00:03:44,750 If you are a bit short in mathematical skills, 68 00:03:44,750 --> 00:03:46,079 don't worry. 69 00:03:46,079 --> 00:03:48,590 Many of the most successful scientists 70 00:03:48,590 --> 00:03:52,790 at work today are mathematically semi-literate. 71 00:03:52,790 --> 00:03:55,275 A metaphor will serve here: 72 00:03:55,275 --> 00:04:01,278 Where elite mathematicians and statisticians 73 00:04:01,278 --> 00:04:06,343 and theorists often serve as architects in the expanding realm 74 00:04:06,343 --> 00:04:10,046 of science, the remaining large majority of 75 00:04:10,046 --> 00:04:14,758 basic applied scientists, including a large portion of those who could be 76 00:04:14,758 --> 00:04:20,110 said to be of the first rank, are the ones who map the terrain, they scout 77 00:04:20,110 --> 00:04:22,862 the frontiers, they cut the pathways, 78 00:04:22,862 --> 00:04:25,598 they raise the buildings along the way. 79 00:04:25,598 --> 00:04:28,774 Some may have considered me foolhardy, 80 00:04:28,774 --> 00:04:32,535 but it's been my habit to brush aside the fear of mathematics 81 00:04:32,535 --> 00:04:34,598 when talking to candidate scientists. 82 00:04:34,598 --> 00:04:38,398 During 41 years of teaching biology at Harvard, 83 00:04:38,398 --> 00:04:42,515 I watched sadly as bright students turned away 84 00:04:42,515 --> 00:04:45,439 from the possibility of a scientific career 85 00:04:45,439 --> 00:04:49,167 or even from taking non-required courses in science 86 00:04:49,167 --> 00:04:50,998 because they were afraid of failure. 87 00:04:50,998 --> 00:04:54,358 These math-phobes deprive science and medicine 88 00:04:54,358 --> 00:04:57,607 of immeasurable amounts of badly needed talent. 89 00:04:57,607 --> 00:05:01,558 Here's how to relax your anxieties, if you have them: 90 00:05:01,558 --> 00:05:04,150 Understand that mathematics is a language 91 00:05:04,150 --> 00:05:07,974 ruled like other verbal languages, 92 00:05:07,974 --> 00:05:10,973 or like verbal language generally, by its own grammar 93 00:05:10,973 --> 00:05:12,878 and system of logic. 94 00:05:12,878 --> 00:05:15,736 Any person with average quantitative intelligence 95 00:05:15,736 --> 00:05:18,878 who learns to read and write mathematics 96 00:05:18,878 --> 00:05:25,630 at an elementary level will, as in verbal language, have little difficulty 97 00:05:25,630 --> 00:05:27,694 picking up most of the fundamentals 98 00:05:27,694 --> 00:05:33,031 if they choose to master the mathspeak of most disciplines of science. 99 00:05:33,031 --> 00:05:36,814 The longer you wait to become at least semi-literate 100 00:05:36,814 --> 00:05:42,822 the harder the language of mathematics will be to master, just as again in any verbal 101 00:05:42,822 --> 00:05:45,799 language, but it can be done at any age. 102 00:05:45,799 --> 00:05:47,510 I speak as an authority 103 00:05:47,510 --> 00:05:51,361 on that subject, because I'm an extreme case. 104 00:05:51,361 --> 00:05:55,022 I didn't take algebra until my freshman year 105 00:05:55,022 --> 00:05:57,053 at the University of Alabama. 106 00:05:57,053 --> 00:05:59,374 They didn't teach it before then. 107 00:05:59,374 --> 00:06:04,278 I finally got around to calculus as a 32-year-old tenured professor at Harvard, 108 00:06:04,278 --> 00:06:08,904 where I sat uncomfortably in classes with undergraduate students, 109 00:06:08,904 --> 00:06:11,334 little more than half my age. 110 00:06:11,334 --> 00:06:12,806 A couple of them were students 111 00:06:12,806 --> 00:06:16,062 in a course I was giving on evolutionary biology. 112 00:06:16,062 --> 00:06:21,318 I swallowed my pride, and I learned calculus. 113 00:06:21,318 --> 00:06:24,414 I found out that in science and all its applications, 114 00:06:24,414 --> 00:06:28,376 what is crucial is not that technical ability, 115 00:06:28,376 --> 00:06:31,545 but it is imagination in all of its applications. 116 00:06:31,545 --> 00:06:35,879 The ability to form concepts with images of entities and processes 117 00:06:35,879 --> 00:06:38,815 pictured by intuition. 118 00:06:38,815 --> 00:06:43,159 I found out that advances in science rarely come upstream 119 00:06:43,159 --> 00:06:46,191 from an ability to stand at a blackboard 120 00:06:46,191 --> 00:06:49,326 and conjure images from unfolding mathematical propositions 121 00:06:49,326 --> 00:06:51,182 and equations. 122 00:06:51,182 --> 00:06:56,614 They are instead the products of downstream imagination leading to hard work, 123 00:06:56,614 --> 00:07:01,174 during which mathematical reasoning may or may not prove to be relevant. 124 00:07:01,174 --> 00:07:06,373 Ideas emerge when a part of the real or imagined world is studied 125 00:07:06,373 --> 00:07:07,790 for its own sake. 126 00:07:07,790 --> 00:07:13,431 Of foremost importance is a thorough, well-organized knowledge 127 00:07:13,431 --> 00:07:20,080 of all that is known of the relevant entities and processes that might be involved in that domain 128 00:07:20,080 --> 00:07:21,520 you propose to enter. 129 00:07:21,520 --> 00:07:23,646 When something new is discovered, 130 00:07:23,646 --> 00:07:28,615 it's logical then that one of the follow-up steps is 131 00:07:28,615 --> 00:07:32,767 to find the mathematical and statistical methods to move its analysis forward. 132 00:07:32,767 --> 00:07:35,319 If that step proves too difficult for 133 00:07:35,319 --> 00:07:39,491 the person or team that made the discovery, 134 00:07:39,491 --> 00:07:44,790 a mathematician can then be added by them 135 00:07:44,790 --> 00:07:47,087 as a collaborator. 136 00:07:47,087 --> 00:07:49,246 Consider the following principle, 137 00:07:49,246 --> 00:07:54,446 which I will modestly call Wilson's Principle Number One: 138 00:07:54,446 --> 00:07:58,846 It is far easier for scientists 139 00:07:58,846 --> 00:08:03,415 including medical researchers, to require needed collaboration 140 00:08:03,415 --> 00:08:05,533 in mathematics and statistics 141 00:08:05,533 --> 00:08:09,214 than it is for mathematicians and statisticians 142 00:08:09,214 --> 00:08:13,310 to find scientists able to make use of their equations. 143 00:08:13,310 --> 00:08:17,404 It is important in choosing the direction to take in science 144 00:08:17,404 --> 00:08:23,150 to find the subject at your level of competence that interests you deeply, 145 00:08:23,150 --> 00:08:24,790 and focus on that. 146 00:08:24,790 --> 00:08:29,486 Keep in mind, then, Wilson's Second Principle: 147 00:08:29,486 --> 00:08:34,022 For every scientist, whether researcher, technician, 148 00:08:34,022 --> 00:08:37,117 teacher, manager or businessman, 149 00:08:37,117 --> 00:08:41,104 working at any level of mathematical competence, 150 00:08:41,104 --> 00:08:44,558 there exists a discipline in science or medicine 151 00:08:44,558 --> 00:08:48,494 for which that level is enough to achieve excellence. 152 00:08:48,494 --> 00:08:51,054 Now I'm going to offer quickly 153 00:08:51,054 --> 00:08:53,462 several more principles that will be useful 154 00:08:53,462 --> 00:08:56,150 in organizing your education and career, 155 00:08:56,150 --> 00:09:00,535 or if you're teaching, how you might 156 00:09:00,535 --> 00:09:05,423 enhance your own teaching and counseling of young scientists. 157 00:09:05,423 --> 00:09:09,222 In selecting a subject in which to conduct original research, 158 00:09:09,222 --> 00:09:12,422 or to develop world-class expertise, 159 00:09:12,422 --> 00:09:17,750 take a part of the chosen discipline that is sparsely inhabited. 160 00:09:17,750 --> 00:09:22,462 Judge opportunity by how few other students and researchers 161 00:09:22,462 --> 00:09:23,998 are on hand. 162 00:09:23,998 --> 00:09:27,648 This is not to de-emphasize the essential requirement 163 00:09:27,648 --> 00:09:31,087 of broad training, or the value of apprenticing yourself 164 00:09:31,087 --> 00:09:35,550 in ongoing research to programs of high quality. 165 00:09:35,550 --> 00:09:40,278 It is important also to acquire older mentors within these successful 166 00:09:40,278 --> 00:09:44,166 programs, and to make friends and colleagues of your age 167 00:09:44,166 --> 00:09:46,022 for mutual support. 168 00:09:46,022 --> 00:09:48,710 But through it all, look for a way to break out, 169 00:09:48,710 --> 00:09:52,646 to find a field and subject not yet popular. 170 00:09:52,646 --> 00:09:56,423 We have seen this demonstrated already in the talks preceding mine. 171 00:09:56,423 --> 00:10:01,534 There is the quickest way advances are likely to occur, 172 00:10:01,534 --> 00:10:05,151 as measured in discoveries per investigator per year. 173 00:10:05,151 --> 00:10:06,758 You may have heard the 174 00:10:06,758 --> 00:10:10,518 military dictum for the gathering of armies: 175 00:10:10,518 --> 00:10:13,239 March to the sound of the guns. 176 00:10:13,239 --> 00:10:19,749 In science, the exact opposite is the case: March away from the sound of the guns. 177 00:10:19,749 --> 00:10:22,454 So Wilson's Principle Number Three: 178 00:10:22,454 --> 00:10:25,798 March away from the sound of the guns. 179 00:10:25,798 --> 00:10:27,662 Observe from a distance, 180 00:10:27,662 --> 00:10:29,759 but do not join the fray. 181 00:10:29,759 --> 00:10:32,127 Make a fray of your own. 182 00:10:32,127 --> 00:10:36,382 Once you have settled on a specialty, 183 00:10:36,382 --> 00:10:41,662 and the profession you can love, and you've secured opportunity, 184 00:10:41,662 --> 00:10:46,943 your potential to succeed will be greatly enhanced if you study it 185 00:10:46,943 --> 00:10:49,623 enough to become an expert. 186 00:10:49,623 --> 00:10:52,950 There are thousands of professionally delimited 187 00:10:52,950 --> 00:10:55,426 subjects sprinkled through physics and chemistry 188 00:10:55,426 --> 00:10:57,342 to biology and medicine. 189 00:10:57,342 --> 00:11:00,238 And on then into the social sciences, 190 00:11:00,238 --> 00:11:03,440 where it is possible in short time to acquire 191 00:11:03,440 --> 00:11:06,014 the status of an authority. 192 00:11:06,014 --> 00:11:09,526 When the subject is still very thinly populated, 193 00:11:09,526 --> 00:11:12,147 you can with diligence and hard work become 194 00:11:12,147 --> 00:11:14,358 the world authority. 195 00:11:14,358 --> 00:11:18,319 The world needs this kind of expertise, 196 00:11:18,319 --> 00:11:20,494 and it rewards the kind of people 197 00:11:20,494 --> 00:11:22,646 willing to acquire it. 198 00:11:22,646 --> 00:11:27,142 The existing information and what you self-discover 199 00:11:27,142 --> 00:11:31,253 may at first seem skimpy and difficult to connect 200 00:11:31,253 --> 00:11:33,289 to other bodies of knowledge. 201 00:11:33,289 --> 00:11:35,158 Well, if that's the case, 202 00:11:35,158 --> 00:11:39,300 good. Why hard instead of easy? 203 00:11:39,300 --> 00:11:44,155 The answer deserves to be stated as Principle Number Four. 204 00:11:44,155 --> 00:11:47,574 In the attempt to make scientific discoveries, 205 00:11:47,574 --> 00:11:49,567 every problem is an opportunity, 206 00:11:49,567 --> 00:11:51,062 and the more difficult the problem, 207 00:11:51,062 --> 00:11:53,822 the greater will be the importance of its solution. 208 00:11:53,822 --> 00:11:57,630 Now this brings me to a basic categorization 209 00:11:57,630 --> 00:12:00,505 in the way scientific discoveries are made. 210 00:12:00,505 --> 00:12:03,869 Scientists, pure mathematicians among them, 211 00:12:03,869 --> 00:12:07,136 follow one or the other of two pathways: 212 00:12:07,136 --> 00:12:09,246 First through early discoveries, 213 00:12:09,246 --> 00:12:11,390 a problem is identified 214 00:12:11,390 --> 00:12:13,222 and a solution is sought. 215 00:12:13,222 --> 00:12:15,751 The problem may be relatively small; 216 00:12:15,751 --> 00:12:21,172 for example, where exactly in a cruise ship does the norovirus begin to spread? 217 00:12:21,172 --> 00:12:27,078 Or larger, what's the role of dark matter in the expansion of the universe? 218 00:12:27,078 --> 00:12:31,537 As the answer is sought, other phenomena are typically discovered 219 00:12:31,537 --> 00:12:33,182 and other questions are asked. 220 00:12:33,182 --> 00:12:36,198 This first of the two strategies is like a hunter, 221 00:12:36,198 --> 00:12:40,447 exploring a forest in search of a particular quarry, 222 00:12:40,447 --> 00:12:43,366 who finds other quarries along the way. 223 00:12:43,366 --> 00:12:46,198 The second strategy of research 224 00:12:46,198 --> 00:12:47,990 is to study a subject broadly 225 00:12:47,990 --> 00:12:52,766 searching for unknown phenomena or patterns of known phenomena 226 00:12:52,766 --> 00:12:56,567 like a hunter in what we call "the naturalist's trance," 227 00:12:56,567 --> 00:13:00,230 the researcher of mind is open to anything interesting, 228 00:13:00,230 --> 00:13:01,614 any quarry worth taking. 229 00:13:01,614 --> 00:13:03,967 The search is not for the solution of the problem, 230 00:13:03,967 --> 00:13:07,174 but for problems themselves worth solving. 231 00:13:07,174 --> 00:13:09,166 The two strategies of research, 232 00:13:09,166 --> 00:13:12,351 original research, can be stated as follows, 233 00:13:12,351 --> 00:13:16,639 in the final principle I'm going to offer you: 234 00:13:16,639 --> 00:13:20,903 For every problem in a given discipline of science, 235 00:13:20,903 --> 00:13:24,478 there exists a species or entity or phenomenon 236 00:13:24,478 --> 00:13:26,424 ideal for its solution. 237 00:13:26,424 --> 00:13:31,822 And conversely, for every species or other entity 238 00:13:31,822 --> 00:13:34,758 or phenomenon, there exist important problems 239 00:13:34,758 --> 00:13:42,335 for the solution of which, those particular objects of research are ideally suited. 240 00:13:42,335 --> 00:13:44,272 Find out what they are. 241 00:13:44,272 --> 00:13:47,407 You'll find your own way to discover, 242 00:13:47,407 --> 00:13:49,590 to learn, to teach. 243 00:13:49,590 --> 00:13:53,023 The decades ahead will see dramatic advances 244 00:13:53,023 --> 00:13:57,590 in disease prevention, general health, the quality of life. 245 00:13:57,590 --> 00:14:03,615 All of humanity depends on the knowledge and practice of the medicine and the science 246 00:14:03,615 --> 00:14:05,198 behind it you will master. 247 00:14:05,198 --> 00:14:08,662 You have chosen a calling that will come in steps 248 00:14:08,662 --> 00:14:14,073 to give you satisfaction, at its conclusion, of a life well lived. 249 00:14:14,073 --> 00:14:16,686 And I thank you for having me here tonight. 250 00:14:16,686 --> 00:14:22,054 (Applause) 251 00:14:22,054 --> 00:14:23,326 Oh, thank you. 252 00:14:23,326 --> 00:14:30,482 Thank you very much. 253 00:14:30,482 --> 00:14:35,014 I salute you.