Do you want to be a scientist?Why?
Answers
Answer:
No.......
I have no interest in scientist
Answer:
I have always wanted to be a scientist because there are few joys to compare to that of discovery. There is a wonderful thrill that comes from understanding something. It brings contentment as well as excitement. But even more amazing is the feeling that you are one of the first to think of something or come to a deep understanding. The greatest moments of my life were when I thought I was the first to hear nature's whisper. You are truly privileged if you are the one to ask the question the right way so that the answer comes back meaningfully. And then, if nature, the universe, tells you the answer, it's joyous, it's magical.
It's a lot like having a genie. Just like in the genie stories, you have to be smart about your requests. You don't want to waste your wish with a thoughtless question. If you ask precisely enough, you will get what you want (we all know jokes about poorly articulated requests from genies -- one of my favorites is at the end*). A scientist will ask for something much more lasting and of greater benefit than riches like gold.
As a scientist, most of your life is spent doing pretty routine things. And it can get tedious, but it's all to prepare yourself and your lab for the big moments. That's when you get to do the really great experiment that may show you how nature works. You might call this a discovery. Even here, most discoveries are small and only in the aggregate do they really matter. Each discovery adds one tiny piece to the giant jigsaw puzzle. These results get published so that other smart people can challenge them and ultimately improve on them. Sometimes, you are the one who gets to put in the critical or last piece in that jigsaw puzzle. Then you get to understand the whole picture before anyone else does. And it's incredibly exciting.
But if you ask the question incorrectly, like in the genie stories, it all goes awry. This is why the worst insult in science is tell someone they have proposed an untestable hypothesis. The famous story is of the Nobel Laureate physicist, Wolfgang Pauli, who is asked his thoughts of a novel theory just presented by a not so good physicist . He answered, "It was terrible. It was not even wrong." If you don't ask a precise and testable hypothesis, then no good can come from it. A good hypothesis can be wrong, and even negative results are very useful. But the good scientist knows to be careful of how you frame and pursue the question with the scientific method. Like making smart wishes with a genie.
*Genie joke: A scientist and a graduate student and a post-doc are working late one night when they discovery a magic lantern and on rubbing it find a genie who offers them, collectively, 3 wishes. They decide that each one should get one wish. The first request to the genie is from the young male graduate student who asks for a private island, well stocked with all sorts of provisions and entertainment, and unfettered access to the sexiest woman alive. The second request comes from the more mature young woman who is a post-doc and she asks to be on the same romantic island but with her loving husband. The senior scientist watches first the graduate student and then the post-doc go poof as they disappear and are transferred to the wonderful tropical paradise to be perpetually surrounded by all the pleasures they might want. Now its the scientist's turn and without hesitation he looks at the genie and says his wish, "Bring them back, right away. We haven't finished our experiment."