Welcome!

A warm welcome! Not to Vignaattru, but to the league of curious minds- ubiquitous but not always successful! These curious minds are the secret behind the fairy tale of civilisation man is a part of. From a kid who wonders even at the most commonplace thing to scientists debating origin of the universe (or universes?), curiosity is the common strand connecting all knowledge endeavours. And that is a necessary, and often sufficient condition for someone to embark on a career of research!

“The ideal scientist thinks like a poet and works like a bookkeeper”,

so said E. O. Wilson. With curiosity giving inspiration for research, all that is required to manifest one’s ideas into scientific discovery or invention is hard work or persistence- or both. Often, we attribute greatness of a scientist (in a broad sense, not just physics, maths etc) to his/her ‘genius’. But does something like that exist first of all? In fact, it is insulting to label the fruit of somebody’s intense mental efforts -taken over years and decades with the inner turmoil of burning curiosity -as just a product of their congenital gift, i.e. their ‘inborn’ genius.

Reserving further discussions on that to another post, all we would say is that hard work makes someone a good researcher/scientist. Add curiosity and a genuinely open mind to it, that is the recipe for him/her to be a great scientist, not just a good one. More than how much qualified or learned a person is, what matters in research is the way the person approaches the problem at hand and how much drive and passion he/she has in understanding the truth in something. After all, every discovery is just an act of understanding! If no one else has understood what you have , then you disclose it to the world and you would be called a discoverer, inventor , scientist or what not! But aren’t we understanding something or other all through our life? In some sense, each such moment is an act of discovery, a result of the prodigal mind humans possess- only that what we understand or learn on our own is often not unprecedented, it is simply known by others. But should that rob it of its glory?

We have numerous institutions in our country which have really bright minds doing research but often we rue the fact that we are still in look out for the next C.V. Raman or J.C. Bose or S. Ramanujan. What stops really intelligent people from emulating the stalwarts of the past? Could pouring more money into the system alone help people do so? To be fair, we have lot of good researchers making a mark in their fields but despite all efforts we are still playing catching up game with the West. The system, with no better alternative available, takes academically accomplished students and trains them to become researchers via the time tested route of PhDs. The students, to be fair, accomplish quite a lot in their career and end up doing what would definitely be regarded as quality research. But don’t most of them miss taking their abilities to the next level – where they would play a leading role in taking their field forward? Why have we not really produced scientists who would be pioneers in their field?

While there might be many answers to this question, Vignaattru believes that truly curious, wonder-struck and passionate students often don’t end up taking a career in science. The academically sound students who come up through the ladder into scientisthood may not always be ones who dreamt of doing research and get thrilled by it. This irony is what we believe needs to be addressed to bridge the gap between average and sublime research. Think of musicians, sportsmen or any other artists- those who work hard and struggle grow to be accomplished artists. But those who become pioneers are the ones who get thrilled working on their art, who feel an emotional connect with it and can not consider it only as a profession. We feel the same holds true in science also. And we can only blame the aspiring curious researchers for not forcing themselves up the ladder! Any educational system treats its students as a monolith and devises mechanisms to educate and empower them. Thus it rates its students based on how well they perform in its programmes. But students’ aren’t a monolith. The most curious are not always the most disciplined or focussed persons! And if they don’t make it to the top, who else can they blame but themselves?

Vignaattru hopes to be a platform/portal for such curious minds, to help each other in ironing out shortcomings, to understand what it takes to succeed at the highest level and to find a way on their own towards that! Each of us are unique and something which is motivation trigger or a useful advice for one is not so for other. If we dream of spending a lifetime (in research) thinking about challenging scientific problems, can’t we reflect a while and use our brains to figure out how to become good, hopefully great, scientists?

So, how about a guild for researchers, where aspiring researchers meet the more experienced ones and pick up skills? Vignaattru hopes to be one- a virtual guild informing and engaging such aspirants! Feel free to speak to us, ask what you always wanted to, and participate in Vignaattru!

P.S.- Vignaattru/Vijnaattru=Vignaan +Naattru, i.e. Science (Sanskrit)+ saplings (Tamil) or the saplings of science, which budding researchers are !