There
is no hope of doing perfect research appears to me as if someone says that
there is no sense in breathing due to pollution in air. Human mind is
inquisitive, introspective and constructive. With such beautiful tools if one
keeps thinking negative like the title statement, probably nothing new will
happen, all mankind will come to a standstill with no progress at all. Can we
say that all doctors should be banned to treat patients as they keep practising?
Since they keep practising and never become perfect, probably they have no
right to play with any patient’s life. But actually in real life scenario they
do ample amount of practise during their medical studies.
Research
word if broken in two parts becomes re + search. It means whatever has been
searched so far is not complete or perfect and hence need to be redone in a
better or a different way to find out much better or more optimized solution.
As long as a scientist’s theory or invention is not proven wrong or incomplete,
it is treated as a complete and proven work. Anything that has been proven by
someone along with facts and evidences in hand, it hold good and valid; unless
someone else proves it wrong with counter facts and evidences.
All
researches do not result into success. There have been instances where
scientists have spent years of efforts on finding out some new facts or
evidences but in vain. Probably the number of failed researches would be much
higher as compared to successful researches. But that does not stop mankind to
stop being innovative.
Lot
of researches have been done so far and have resulted into useful products or
objects in our life. Wheel, needle, fire, candle, bulb, hand pump, motor,
engine etc. are all results of research only. It did not happen in a day that
Marconi invented radio or Madam Curie discovered radium. All such discoveries
and inventions have got a final shape only after long years or hard work in
shape of research.
What
we have today does not prove is final or perfect. For example, today we need a
match stick to light a candle. Tomorrow, some new research may find out a way
of lighting a candle with a clap. Who knows what we dream today in out fantasy
world would not become a reality. We never imagined so much of revolution by
internet 20 years back. It is not all a result of researches done by scientists
and engineers?
Without
research there would be no fact findings and hence whatever we do will go
haywire. How a nation comes to know about the total population, per capita
income, gross consumption of food or inflation rate is all result of ongoing
research. Research in a way is process of fact finding or collection of raw
information to fetch out some desirable results from it by way of analysis.
Definitely whatever we research must have a scientific way to move in right
direction.
C
V Raman (Chandrashekhar Venkat Raman) was the first Indian to win Nobel Prize in
Science. He started his research work in 1907 but it was in 1918 that is
preliminary scientific writings appeared in Indian Association for the
Cultivation of Science as bulletins. Bulletin (Bull.) 6 and 11 consisted of his
work on Maintenance of Vibrations and Bull. 15 comprised of Theory of the
Musical Instruments. In 1928 his article appeared in 8th volume of
the Handbuch der Physik (Handbook of Physics) about his theory on musical
instruments. His long years of exploration on his favourite subject ‘ Molecular
diffraction of light brought out fruitful result in 1922 when his first report
on the subject got published.
C
V Raman did not stop here and kept
his research on further despite not too much of support from other scientists.
Finally he broke the ice on February 28, 1928 when he discovered Radiation
Effect (A New Radiation, Indian Journal of Physics, 2, 1928, 387p) that
resulted into Nobel Prize for him in 1930.
Necessity
is the mother of invention. This holds good in case of another great Indian IT
revolutionary personality Sabeer Bhatia who gave birth to Hotmail. It was his
urge to communicate with his friend under strict atmosphere while working at
Apple Computers in U.S.
The desire came as a requirement of confidential or anonymous way of
communicating with his friend Jack Smith, working in the same office. They
wanted to exchange mails but without getting them coming into the notice of
their office administration. And thus Hotmail took birth. Hotmail was later bought
over by Microsoft. Hotmail probably was a mixed result of necessity and urge
that forced Sabeer to do his research on making a high quality product Hotmail
that made him world famous overnight.
Same
is the case with Mark Zuckerberg who gave birth to facebook that has
revolutionised the whole world in terms of social networking. Facebook is
having the largest number of subscribers over the globe. Is it not a result of
research? Is it fluke? No. Is it ultimate? It is final? Is it end? No. Someone
someday may come out with another product or service that will make the current
service or product that is at peak to fall down to bottom. That is the meaning
of research that findings and improvements never end.
Many
a times it happens that some intelligent work or research is done or gets
published but gets subdued because of peer rivalry or politics. Many important
researches would have gone into dustbin for such reasons.
Overall
Research is nature of human being. We don’t prefer to get satisfied with what
we have today. We don’t get convinced with what we are using today by treating
it as an ultimate. We always strive for improvement, always trying to find out
something better than what we have in hand. This curious nature of human being
will never let him stop by and say good bye to research work. Innovation will
never end and thus will be the case with Research. Who are we to declare
whether a research is perfect or not?
