WEBVTT 00:00:01.519 --> 00:00:04.294 What I'm going to do is to just give a few notes, 00:00:04.294 --> 00:00:08.110 and this is from a book I'm preparing called 00:00:08.110 --> 00:00:10.535 "Letters to a Young Scientist." 00:00:10.535 --> 00:00:12.686 I'd thought it'd be appropriate to 00:00:12.686 --> 00:00:17.775 present it, on the basis that I have had extensive experience 00:00:17.775 --> 00:00:21.471 in teaching, counseling scientists across a broad array of fields. 00:00:21.471 --> 00:00:26.870 And you might like to hear some of the principles that I've developed in doing 00:00:26.870 --> 00:00:28.551 that teaching and counseling. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:28.551 --> 00:00:31.449 So let me begin by urging you, 00:00:31.449 --> 00:00:33.998 particularly you on the youngsters' side, 00:00:33.998 --> 00:00:35.974 on this path you've chosen, 00:00:35.974 --> 00:00:37.878 to go as far as you can. 00:00:37.878 --> 00:00:41.346 The world needs you, badly. 00:00:41.346 --> 00:00:45.864 Humanity is now fully into the techno-scientific age. 00:00:45.864 --> 00:00:48.343 There is going to be no turning back. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:48.343 --> 00:00:53.268 Although varying among disciplines -- say, astrophysics, 00:00:53.268 --> 00:00:57.230 molecular genetics, the immunology, the microbiology, the public 00:00:57.230 --> 00:01:03.424 health, to the new area of the human body as a symbiont, 00:01:03.424 --> 00:01:05.905 to public health, environmental science. 00:01:05.905 --> 00:01:09.021 Knowledge in medical science and science overall 00:01:09.021 --> 00:01:12.158 is doubling every 15 to 20 years. 00:01:12.158 --> 00:01:15.246 Technology is increasing at a comparable rate. 00:01:15.246 --> 00:01:18.230 Between them, the two already pervade, 00:01:18.230 --> 00:01:21.094 as most of you here seated realize, 00:01:21.094 --> 00:01:23.479 every dimension of human life. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:23.479 --> 00:01:28.535 So swift is the velocity of the techno-scientific revolution, 00:01:28.535 --> 00:01:33.262 so startling in its countless twists and turns, that no one can predict 00:01:33.262 --> 00:01:37.710 its outcome even a decade from the present moment. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:37.710 --> 00:01:39.407 There will come a time, of course, 00:01:39.407 --> 00:01:43.158 when the exponential growth of discovery and knowledge, 00:01:43.158 --> 00:01:45.294 which actually began in the 1600s, 00:01:45.294 --> 00:01:48.110 has to peak and level off, 00:01:48.110 --> 00:01:49.358 but that's not going to matter to you. 00:01:49.358 --> 00:01:50.672 The revolution is going to continue 00:01:50.672 --> 00:01:53.630 for at least several more decades. 00:01:53.630 --> 00:01:55.374 It'll render the human condition 00:01:55.374 --> 00:01:57.720 radically different from what it is today. 00:01:57.720 --> 00:02:04.038 Traditional fields of study are going to continue to grow 00:02:04.038 --> 00:02:08.863 and in so doing, inevitably they will meet and create new disciplines. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:08.863 --> 00:02:12.710 In time, all of science will come to be 00:02:12.710 --> 00:02:18.166 a continuum of description, an explanation of networks, of principles and laws. 00:02:18.166 --> 00:02:21.366 That's why you need not just be training 00:02:21.366 --> 00:02:25.806 in one specialty, but also acquire breadth in other fields, 00:02:25.806 --> 00:02:29.494 related to and even distant from your own initial choice. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:29.494 --> 00:02:33.439 Keep your eyes lifted and your head turning. 00:02:33.439 --> 00:02:36.504 The search for knowledge is in our genes. 00:02:36.504 --> 00:02:40.016 It was put there by our distant ancestors 00:02:40.016 --> 00:02:41.639 who spread across the world, 00:02:41.639 --> 00:02:43.334 and it's never going to be quenched. 00:02:43.334 --> 00:02:46.527 To understand and use it sanely, 00:02:46.527 --> 00:02:50.486 as a part of the civilization yet to evolve 00:02:50.486 --> 00:02:56.328 requires a vastly larger population of scientifically trained people like you. 00:02:56.328 --> 00:03:00.366 In education, medicine, law, diplomacy, 00:03:00.366 --> 00:03:04.654 government, business and the media that exist today. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:04.654 --> 00:03:09.614 Our political leaders need at least a modest degree of scientific 00:03:09.614 --> 00:03:12.710 literacy, which most badly lack today -- 00:03:12.710 --> 00:03:14.254 no applause, please. 00:03:14.254 --> 00:03:16.712 It will be better for all 00:03:16.712 --> 00:03:21.383 if they prepare before entering office rather than learning on the job. 00:03:21.383 --> 00:03:24.542 Therefore you will do well to act on the side, 00:03:24.542 --> 00:03:27.247 no matter how far into the laboratory 00:03:27.247 --> 00:03:30.566 you may go, to serve as teachers 00:03:30.566 --> 00:03:32.574 during the span of your career. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:32.574 --> 00:03:34.649 I'll now proceed quickly, 00:03:34.649 --> 00:03:37.838 and before else, to a subject that is both a vital asset 00:03:37.838 --> 00:03:41.270 and a potential barrier to a scientific career. 00:03:41.270 --> 00:03:44.750 If you are a bit short in mathematical skills, 00:03:44.750 --> 00:03:46.079 don't worry. 00:03:46.079 --> 00:03:48.590 Many of the most successful scientists 00:03:48.590 --> 00:03:52.790 at work today are mathematically semi-literate. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:52.790 --> 00:03:55.275 A metaphor will serve here: 00:03:55.275 --> 00:04:01.278 Where elite mathematicians and statisticians 00:04:01.278 --> 00:04:06.343 and theorists often serve as architects in the expanding realm 00:04:06.343 --> 00:04:10.046 of science, the remaining large majority of 00:04:10.046 --> 00:04:14.758 basic applied scientists, including a large portion of those who could be 00:04:14.758 --> 00:04:20.110 said to be of the first rank, are the ones who map the terrain, they scout 00:04:20.110 --> 00:04:22.862 the frontiers, they cut the pathways, 00:04:22.862 --> 00:04:25.598 they raise the buildings along the way. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:25.598 --> 00:04:28.774 Some may have considered me foolhardy, 00:04:28.774 --> 00:04:32.535 but it's been my habit to brush aside the fear of mathematics 00:04:32.535 --> 00:04:34.598 when talking to candidate scientists. 00:04:34.598 --> 00:04:38.398 During 41 years of teaching biology at Harvard, 00:04:38.398 --> 00:04:42.515 I watched sadly as bright students turned away 00:04:42.515 --> 00:04:45.439 from the possibility of a scientific career 00:04:45.439 --> 00:04:49.167 or even from taking non-required courses in science 00:04:49.167 --> 00:04:50.998 because they were afraid of failure. 00:04:50.998 --> 00:04:54.358 These math-phobes deprive science and medicine 00:04:54.358 --> 00:04:57.607 of immeasurable amounts of badly needed talent. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:57.607 --> 00:05:01.558 Here's how to relax your anxieties, if you have them: 00:05:01.558 --> 00:05:04.150 Understand that mathematics is a language 00:05:04.150 --> 00:05:07.974 ruled like other verbal languages, 00:05:07.974 --> 00:05:10.973 or like verbal language generally, by its own grammar 00:05:10.973 --> 00:05:12.878 and system of logic. 00:05:12.878 --> 00:05:15.736 Any person with average quantitative intelligence 00:05:15.736 --> 00:05:18.878 who learns to read and write mathematics 00:05:18.878 --> 00:05:25.630 at an elementary level will, as in verbal language, have little difficulty 00:05:25.630 --> 00:05:27.694 picking up most of the fundamentals 00:05:27.694 --> 00:05:33.031 if they choose to master the mathspeak of most disciplines of science. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:33.031 --> 00:05:36.814 The longer you wait to become at least semi-literate 00:05:36.814 --> 00:05:42.822 the harder the language of mathematics will be to master, just as again in any verbal 00:05:42.822 --> 00:05:45.799 language, but it can be done at any age. 00:05:45.799 --> 00:05:47.510 I speak as an authority 00:05:47.510 --> 00:05:51.361 on that subject, because I'm an extreme case. 00:05:51.361 --> 00:05:55.022 I didn't take algebra until my freshman year 00:05:55.022 --> 00:05:57.053 at the University of Alabama. 00:05:57.053 --> 00:05:59.374 They didn't teach it before then. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:59.374 --> 00:06:04.278 I finally got around to calculus as a 32-year-old tenured professor at Harvard, 00:06:04.278 --> 00:06:08.904 where I sat uncomfortably in classes with undergraduate students, 00:06:08.904 --> 00:06:11.334 little more than half my age. 00:06:11.334 --> 00:06:12.806 A couple of them were students 00:06:12.806 --> 00:06:16.062 in a course I was giving on evolutionary biology. 00:06:16.062 --> 00:06:21.318 I swallowed my pride, and I learned calculus. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:21.318 --> 00:06:24.414 I found out that in science and all its applications, 00:06:24.414 --> 00:06:28.376 what is crucial is not that technical ability, 00:06:28.376 --> 00:06:31.545 but it is imagination in all of its applications. 00:06:31.545 --> 00:06:35.879 The ability to form concepts with images of entities and processes 00:06:35.879 --> 00:06:38.815 pictured by intuition. 00:06:38.815 --> 00:06:43.159 I found out that advances in science rarely come upstream 00:06:43.159 --> 00:06:46.191 from an ability to stand at a blackboard 00:06:46.191 --> 00:06:49.326 and conjure images from unfolding mathematical propositions 00:06:49.326 --> 00:06:51.182 and equations. 00:06:51.182 --> 00:06:56.614 They are instead the products of downstream imagination leading to hard work, 00:06:56.614 --> 00:07:01.174 during which mathematical reasoning may or may not prove to be relevant. 00:07:01.174 --> 00:07:06.373 Ideas emerge when a part of the real or imagined world is studied 00:07:06.373 --> 00:07:07.790 for its own sake. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:07.790 --> 00:07:13.431 Of foremost importance is a thorough, well-organized knowledge 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 00:07:20.080 --> 00:07:21.520 you propose to enter. 00:07:21.520 --> 00:07:23.646 When something new is discovered, 00:07:23.646 --> 00:07:28.615 it's logical then that one of the follow-up steps is 00:07:28.615 --> 00:07:32.767 to find the mathematical and statistical methods to move its analysis forward. 00:07:32.767 --> 00:07:35.319 If that step proves too difficult for 00:07:35.319 --> 00:07:39.491 the person or team that made the discovery, 00:07:39.491 --> 00:07:44.790 a mathematician can then be added by them 00:07:44.790 --> 00:07:47.087 as a collaborator. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:47.087 --> 00:07:49.246 Consider the following principle, 00:07:49.246 --> 00:07:54.446 which I will modestly call Wilson's Principle Number One: 00:07:54.446 --> 00:07:58.846 It is far easier for scientists 00:07:58.846 --> 00:08:03.415 including medical researchers, to require needed collaboration 00:08:03.415 --> 00:08:05.533 in mathematics and statistics 00:08:05.533 --> 00:08:09.214 than it is for mathematicians and statisticians 00:08:09.214 --> 00:08:13.310 to find scientists able to make use of their equations. 00:08:13.310 --> 00:08:17.404 It is important in choosing the direction to take in science 00:08:17.404 --> 00:08:23.150 to find the subject at your level of competence that interests you deeply, 00:08:23.150 --> 00:08:24.790 and focus on that. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:24.790 --> 00:08:29.486 Keep in mind, then, Wilson's Second Principle: 00:08:29.486 --> 00:08:34.022 For every scientist, whether researcher, technician, 00:08:34.022 --> 00:08:37.117 teacher, manager or businessman, 00:08:37.117 --> 00:08:41.104 working at any level of mathematical competence, 00:08:41.104 --> 00:08:44.558 there exists a discipline in science or medicine 00:08:44.558 --> 00:08:48.494 for which that level is enough to achieve excellence. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:48.494 --> 00:08:51.054 Now I'm going to offer quickly 00:08:51.054 --> 00:08:53.462 several more principles that will be useful 00:08:53.462 --> 00:08:56.150 in organizing your education and career, 00:08:56.150 --> 00:09:00.535 or if you're teaching, how you might 00:09:00.535 --> 00:09:05.423 enhance your own teaching and counseling of young scientists. 00:09:05.423 --> 00:09:09.222 In selecting a subject in which to conduct original research, 00:09:09.222 --> 00:09:12.422 or to develop world-class expertise, 00:09:12.422 --> 00:09:17.750 take a part of the chosen discipline that is sparsely inhabited. 00:09:17.750 --> 00:09:22.462 Judge opportunity by how few other students and researchers 00:09:22.462 --> 00:09:23.998 are on hand. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:23.998 --> 00:09:27.648 This is not to de-emphasize the essential requirement 00:09:27.648 --> 00:09:31.087 of broad training, or the value of apprenticing yourself 00:09:31.087 --> 00:09:35.550 in ongoing research to programs of high quality. 00:09:35.550 --> 00:09:40.278 It is important also to acquire older mentors within these successful 00:09:40.278 --> 00:09:44.166 programs, and to make friends and colleagues of your age 00:09:44.166 --> 00:09:46.022 for mutual support. 00:09:46.022 --> 00:09:48.710 But through it all, look for a way to break out, 00:09:48.710 --> 00:09:52.646 to find a field and subject not yet popular. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:52.646 --> 00:09:56.423 We have seen this demonstrated already in the talks preceding mine. 00:09:56.423 --> 00:10:01.534 There is the quickest way advances are likely to occur, 00:10:01.534 --> 00:10:05.151 as measured in discoveries per investigator per year. 00:10:05.151 --> 00:10:06.758 You may have heard the 00:10:06.758 --> 00:10:10.518 military dictum for the gathering of armies: 00:10:10.518 --> 00:10:13.239 March to the sound of the guns. 00:10:13.239 --> 00:10:19.749 In science, the exact opposite is the case: March away from the sound of the guns. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:19.749 --> 00:10:22.454 So Wilson's Principle Number Three: 00:10:22.454 --> 00:10:25.798 March away from the sound of the guns. 00:10:25.798 --> 00:10:27.662 Observe from a distance, 00:10:27.662 --> 00:10:29.759 but do not join the fray. 00:10:29.759 --> 00:10:32.127 Make a fray of your own. 00:10:32.127 --> 00:10:36.382 Once you have settled on a specialty, 00:10:36.382 --> 00:10:41.662 and the profession you can love, and you've secured opportunity, 00:10:41.662 --> 00:10:46.943 your potential to succeed will be greatly enhanced if you study it 00:10:46.943 --> 00:10:49.623 enough to become an expert. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:49.623 --> 00:10:52.950 There are thousands of professionally delimited 00:10:52.950 --> 00:10:55.426 subjects sprinkled through physics and chemistry 00:10:55.426 --> 00:10:57.342 to biology and medicine. 00:10:57.342 --> 00:11:00.238 And on then into the social sciences, 00:11:00.238 --> 00:11:03.440 where it is possible in short time to acquire 00:11:03.440 --> 00:11:06.014 the status of an authority. 00:11:06.014 --> 00:11:09.526 When the subject is still very thinly populated, 00:11:09.526 --> 00:11:12.147 you can with diligence and hard work become 00:11:12.147 --> 00:11:14.358 the world authority. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:14.358 --> 00:11:18.319 The world needs this kind of expertise, 00:11:18.319 --> 00:11:20.494 and it rewards the kind of people 00:11:20.494 --> 00:11:22.646 willing to acquire it. 00:11:22.646 --> 00:11:27.142 The existing information and what you self-discover 00:11:27.142 --> 00:11:31.253 may at first seem skimpy and difficult to connect 00:11:31.253 --> 00:11:33.289 to other bodies of knowledge. 00:11:33.289 --> 00:11:35.158 Well, if that's the case, 00:11:35.158 --> 00:11:39.300 good. Why hard instead of easy? NOTE Paragraph 00:11:39.300 --> 00:11:44.155 The answer deserves to be stated as Principle Number Four. 00:11:44.155 --> 00:11:47.574 In the attempt to make scientific discoveries, 00:11:47.574 --> 00:11:49.567 every problem is an opportunity, 00:11:49.567 --> 00:11:51.062 and the more difficult the problem, 00:11:51.062 --> 00:11:53.822 the greater will be the importance of its solution. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:53.822 --> 00:11:57.630 Now this brings me to a basic categorization 00:11:57.630 --> 00:12:00.505 in the way scientific discoveries are made. 00:12:00.505 --> 00:12:03.869 Scientists, pure mathematicians among them, 00:12:03.869 --> 00:12:07.136 follow one or the other of two pathways: 00:12:07.136 --> 00:12:09.246 First through early discoveries, 00:12:09.246 --> 00:12:11.390 a problem is identified 00:12:11.390 --> 00:12:13.222 and a solution is sought. 00:12:13.222 --> 00:12:15.751 The problem may be relatively small; 00:12:15.751 --> 00:12:21.172 for example, where exactly in a cruise ship does the norovirus begin to spread? 00:12:21.172 --> 00:12:27.078 Or larger, what's the role of dark matter in the expansion of the universe? 00:12:27.078 --> 00:12:31.537 As the answer is sought, other phenomena are typically discovered 00:12:31.537 --> 00:12:33.182 and other questions are asked. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:33.182 --> 00:12:36.198 This first of the two strategies is like a hunter, 00:12:36.198 --> 00:12:40.447 exploring a forest in search of a particular quarry, 00:12:40.447 --> 00:12:43.366 who finds other quarries along the way. 00:12:43.366 --> 00:12:46.198 The second strategy of research 00:12:46.198 --> 00:12:47.990 is to study a subject broadly 00:12:47.990 --> 00:12:52.766 searching for unknown phenomena or patterns of known phenomena 00:12:52.766 --> 00:12:56.567 like a hunter in what we call "the naturalist's trance," 00:12:56.567 --> 00:13:00.230 the researcher of mind is open to anything interesting, 00:13:00.230 --> 00:13:01.614 any quarry worth taking. 00:13:01.614 --> 00:13:03.967 The search is not for the solution of the problem, 00:13:03.967 --> 00:13:07.174 but for problems themselves worth solving. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:07.174 --> 00:13:09.166 The two strategies of research, 00:13:09.166 --> 00:13:12.351 original research, can be stated as follows, 00:13:12.351 --> 00:13:16.639 in the final principle I'm going to offer you: 00:13:16.639 --> 00:13:20.903 For every problem in a given discipline of science, 00:13:20.903 --> 00:13:24.478 there exists a species or entity or phenomenon 00:13:24.478 --> 00:13:26.424 ideal for its solution. 00:13:26.424 --> 00:13:31.822 And conversely, for every species or other entity 00:13:31.822 --> 00:13:34.758 or phenomenon, there exist important problems 00:13:34.758 --> 00:13:42.335 for the solution of which, those particular objects of research are ideally suited. 00:13:42.335 --> 00:13:44.272 Find out what they are. 00:13:44.272 --> 00:13:47.407 You'll find your own way to discover, 00:13:47.407 --> 00:13:49.590 to learn, to teach. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:49.590 --> 00:13:53.023 The decades ahead will see dramatic advances 00:13:53.023 --> 00:13:57.590 in disease prevention, general health, the quality of life. 00:13:57.590 --> 00:14:03.615 All of humanity depends on the knowledge and practice of the medicine and the science 00:14:03.615 --> 00:14:05.198 behind it you will master. 00:14:05.198 --> 00:14:08.662 You have chosen a calling that will come in steps 00:14:08.662 --> 00:14:14.073 to give you satisfaction, at its conclusion, of a life well lived. 00:14:14.073 --> 00:14:16.686 And I thank you for having me here tonight. NOTE Paragraph 00:14:16.686 --> 00:14:22.054 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:14:22.054 --> 00:14:23.326 Oh, thank you. 00:14:23.326 --> 00:14:30.482 Thank you very much. 00:14:30.482 --> 00:14:35.014 I salute you.