Letters from Downunder
The Thrill of
Discovery
Submitted by Lindsay Coker, Melbourne Australia
(June, 2010) Discovery
consists of seeing what everybody has seen and
thinking what nobody has thought. Albert von
Szent-Gyorgyi
There is nothing quite
like the thrill of discovery.
Whether it’s a baby
discovering their toes for the first time, or
a fossicker finding a buried treasure, the
thrill is there. Even when everyone else knows
about it, it makes no difference to the new
discoverer – there is always that little
frisson of excitement. The other day I watched
my five-month-old granddaughter try and
eventually succeed in getting her dummy into
her mouth. Her grin of achievement was
beautiful to behold. I remember hearing the
first crackle of sound from a crystal radio I
had made when I was ten. Open mouthed wonder,
and questions as to what made it work. No one
knew, then, but of course the almost magical
properties of quartz crystals are considered
commonplace today.
Childhood discoveries
are wondrous, but how quickly most of of us
forget them and the excitement they bring. For
many, of course, discovery becomes a matter of
survival – finding food, clean water and
somewhere to sleep is the whole of life – but
most of us do have time to wonder about what
we see and hear, the why, the wherefore, the
how. Some of us become driven, put their whole
life and future into finding out - and I do
not mean the discovery of how to make money.
That’s not a discovery, but a belief we’re
imbued with from the cradle.
This need to find out
has been with mankind since our forebrain grew
to become the powerhouse. It has led the race
outwards, inwards, forwards and at times
backwards. We would not be human without it,
but when the quest is made to seem too hard,
pointless, or foolish our humanity is also
likely to be diminished. This is no mere
quibble; finding things out can so easily be
diverted into easier types of education.
‘Science stinks’ is not a new idea. Remember
Julius Sumner Miller? ‘Why is it so?’ was his
cry. Not Science Stinks, but Scientists Think
- and as Rene Descartes famously said, ‘I
think, therefore I am. ‘
So discovery means
thinking; it also means you do not have to
have anything but one or two of your senses
working to begin. You do NOT have to have much
money, though some helps. A recent British
report showed that a good magnifying glass, a
few small white dishes, a good light and a
pair of tweezers were all that was needed to
examine a spoonful of soil from the garden.
There was a reasonable chance you would find
something there that you did not know about,
and some chance it would be something that no
one knew about. I was also impressed to read
in this journal a couple of months ago about
the science awards given to school children in
the area, and the wonderful and inventive
things that had been achieved. The same kinds
of thing happen across the world, making the
discoverer rich in mind and spirit.
Research and discovery
is not all about the sciences, of course.
Every area of Endeavour has its cache of
treasures, and most do not require the vast
sums of money that advanced science does
today. It is one thing to examine a spoonful
of dirt, an entirely different thing to
examine its molecular structure. It is one
thing to listen to a crystal radio, another to
discover why quartz behaves like it does.
Advanced research takes advanced funding, but
here enters two different ideas about this:
Much of the money spent on this type of
sophisticated research is done with the aim of
recouping the outlay by a factor of ten plus.
It is profit driven, and while it does produce
results, it does not advance the understanding
of fundamentals to any great degree. That is
the realm of basic research, which is properly
the role taken by universities and government
funded bodies. Much of industry used to be in
the forefront of of such work, but rarely is
nowadays. Basic research on fuel cell
technology, alternative energy sources and so
on are part of the industrial work being done
today, but only because it is seen as making
money and enhancing reputations. It’s called
applied research, an area in which I began
many years ago, and found rewarding, but not
to be compared to the joy and stimulation of
pure research.
But whatever the area,
whatever the result, it all starts with an
enquiring mind, continues with a brain that is
stimulated into pursuing the thrill and joy of
discovery, and evolves into someone being able
to add to the sum of things previously unknown
or even unsuspected. Probably a very small
addition – few are Newtons, Burnetts or
Einsteins - but ultimately it is not the
quantity, the breakthrough, or the value of
the advance that matters. It is the journey,
the quest. There is a goal, there are many
diversions and dangers on the way, and it is
the role of parents to provide the first
simple steps, and teacher to foster the
stimulation.
So I would like to pay
tribute to all the dedicated teachers of
discovery, science in particular, and their
role in providing the incentives to think,
learn and uncover.
Read Past Down Under Columns by Lindsay Coker