{"id":2519,"date":"2012-08-03T21:29:50","date_gmt":"2012-08-03T21:29:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/?p=2519"},"modified":"2013-01-05T08:32:26","modified_gmt":"2013-01-05T08:32:26","slug":"uncertainty-is-not-terminal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/2012\/08\/03\/uncertainty-is-not-terminal\/","title":{"rendered":"Uncertainty is Not Terminal…."},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2026it applies to life and it applies to tackling science. It was the phrase picked out by one tweeter from the speech I gave at the University of Exeter a couple of weeks ago when receiving, with some nervousness, an honorary ScD<\/a>. It was a phrase I used to describe the fact that many of them, as new graduates, might be heading off into a future of great uncertainty, without a job and probably with substantial debts weighing down on them. But the fact that they didn\u2019t necessarily know what the future meant now, didn\u2019t mean that the future was therefore bleak. I was trying to reassure them that even successful people had often been uncertain about both short and long term goals, and almost invariably things would have turned out differently for them from their aspirations at some, possibly many, points along the way. But, the lack of definite knowledge about how things would pan out shouldn\u2019t paralyse any of the new graduates them with fear; in other words the future still was, at least potentially, their oyster. I have no idea whether that was how they interpreted that phrase, but with luck something of the spirit was conveyed to them at least.<\/p>\n

However, when it comes to tackling scientific research, it seems to me that \u2018uncertainty is not terminal<\/em>\u2019 is just as applicable and a phrase worth bearing in mind. Moreover, anyone who doesn\u2019t<\/span> feel comfortable coping with uncertainty is almost certainly going to have a hard time of coping with research. That transition between being fed \u2018facts\u2019 to digest and regurgitate for exams and going off and chasing the unknown is a key transition point in the development of a young researcher. If it doesn\u2019t happen, then there will be a problem.<\/p>\n

Liking \u2013 or at least being prepared to live with – uncertainty is perhaps just another way of saying one is insatiably curious. And that of course is the hallmark of a scientist (although not uniquely so; a recent conversation with a portrait artist indicated that she too believed curiosity was intrinsic to her discipline because she always needed to be experimenting and observing in order to capture her subject accurately. Sounds a very familiar skillset to a scientist). If you don\u2019t want to explore the unknown, and if you can\u2019t do it with confidence, then a scientific research career may not be the right thing for you.<\/p>\n

But scientists have to start somewhere, and that somewhere is inevitably going to be at a tender age. One of the most important things to ensure, as the Primary School National Curriculum Review<\/a> proceeds, is that we do not squeeze out space in the curriculum to allow the natural curiosity in the young to be developed.\u00a0 As the draft curriculum stands, there are encouraging signs that this is recognized, with an emphasis given to the idea of \u2018working scientifically<\/em>\u2019 as something to be centrally embodied in the early years programme of work, this to include:<\/p>\n