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Taking Risks in Science

00:00:31.03 So what separates the best research scientists from the rest?
00:00:37.07 Is it genius? Just luck?
00:00:41.14 Some sort of special educational philosophy?
00:00:44.24 An acquired skill? Is there some secret "sauce"?
00:00:49.14 These are important questions for all scientists,
00:00:53.21 but especially for trainees, for people that are students,
00:00:56.23 post-docs, early stage investigators
00:01:00.22 What is it that really makes the difference in the best scientists?
00:01:05.02 I would say that there is really no secret
00:01:08.24 that the best scientists are doing what attracted
00:01:12.08 all of us to science in the beginning.
00:01:15.15 and that is the excitement of discovery
00:01:20.05 that the best scientists are reaching for the big discoveries.
00:01:22.23 This means taking risks, imagining the way that something could work
00:01:30.13 and then choosing to take the pathways that leave the safe approaches behind.
00:01:35.00 and try something bold. To recognize
00:01:39.12 that the idea of risk is what is really behind the joy of discovery.
00:01:44.28 It is those risks that got us all into this business to begin with.
00:01:49.23 So, François Jacob, the award Nobel Laureate, molecular geneticist
00:01:58.09 that really helped launch the whole field of molecular genetics
00:02:01.24 wrote in his autobiography about the idea of safe science and risky science
00:02:11.10 in a way that I think is particularly powerful and profound.
00:02:15.00 So it is worth looking and thinking a bit about what Jacob said.
00:02:19.00 He said that "Day science calls into play arguments
00:02:24.01 that mesh like gears, results that have the force of certainty...
00:02:28.06 Conscious of its progress, proud of its past, sure of its future
00:02:32.22 day science advances in light and glory.
00:02:36.03 Good stuff...but night science,
00:02:41.29 By contrast night science wanders blind,
00:02:43.08 it hesitates, stumbles, recoils, sweats, wakes with a start.
00:02:48.11 Doubting everything, it is forever trying to find itself, pull itself back together.
00:02:55.21 Night science is a sort of workshop of the possible,
00:02:59.03 where what will become the building material of science is worked out.
00:03:04.06 Pretty strong stuff... good stuff...
00:03:10.15 So how do we become night scientists? That is the question.
00:03:15.08 It is undoubtedly true that there are special scientists who do special things
00:03:22.17 I don't deny that, but the more interesting point
00:03:25.18 is that there is a big element of acquired skill in doing night science.
00:03:31.25 So that is the point I'd like to think about with you.
00:03:35.12 And to do that, we have to think a bit about
00:03:39.16 how we learn to be scientists
00:03:41.17 How did we learn to be independent
00:03:44.05 and independent, what does that mean?
00:03:46.02 So to do that, it is worth going back and thinking a bit about
00:03:51.03 our research training, our education
00:03:54.19 I think that it is fair to say, that research
00:03:58.14 training environment at its best is an environment that
00:04:05.12 immerses the student, the post-doc, the new investigator,
00:04:09.26 in this great sea of terrific science, terrific investigation
00:04:15.26 across a broad range, especially in biology
00:04:18.27 now that the field is developing so dynamically
00:04:22.20 this kind of breadth that now expands into physical sciences
00:04:27.16 and computation and engineering and mathematics
00:04:29.07 uses those concepts and principles
00:04:31.21 to be able to think about biological problems, is the kind of environment
00:04:37.02 that we would want to be immersed in for the very best training
00:04:40.22 So there is that level of providing a general literacy for all students.
00:04:46.23 And then, I'd say there is a set of skills, four of them that are really primary in
00:04:56.02 establishing how it is that we could become great independent scientists.
00:05:01.19 Three of them, are kind of pathway points, skills.
00:05:11.02 One is the ability to identify an important problem to really sift through
00:05:18.18 the problems in biology and identify
00:05:21.18 those that are important to move forward
00:05:25.16 as opposed to those that can sit for awhile until advancements are made.
00:05:32.06 The second is the capacity to develop hypotheses that drive the design
00:05:38.25 of experiments, that allow a big problem to be broken down
00:05:43.02 into pieces that can be experimentally tested and verified or disproved
00:05:48.20 Third, is the capacity to select from amongst the results of experiments,
00:05:54.10 those that will be pursued
00:05:56.24 and separated from those that will be left behind.
00:05:59.17 So, these are the three primary skills
00:06:05.00 and then there is the fourth one, and that is the capacity
00:06:08.28 to in each of those three, identify a problem, breaking it into experiments
00:06:13.28 and pursing results, to recognize that in fact there is a branch point
00:06:18.15 in each of them, between taking a safe route and taking a risky route.
00:06:23.08 So how is it that we learn these four key skills?
00:06:30.10 I think we can take wisdom from the ad campaign that says "Just Do It"
00:06:38.19 or from the fact that we all go to the gym and we learn how to
00:06:45.25 acquire a skill in the gym, is simply by repetition, doing reps.
00:06:51.18 So "Just Do It" and do reps.
00:06:56.14 The amazing thing about science
00:06:59.15 is that we do in fact, through the process of repeating a skill,
00:07:06.06 become better at it, and gain confidence that we can do it well.
00:07:11.18 The remarkable thing about science, is that we are surrounded by,
00:07:17.15 immersed in, this opportunity to be doing reps all the time.
00:07:24.13 So doing science is like living in the gym, every paper we read,
00:07:29.11 every seminar we go to, every hallway conversation we have with a friend
00:07:35.10 about experiments, every scientific meeting that we go to,
00:07:38.03 offers multiple opportunities for us as students of science,
00:07:44.23 to ask is this the problem that I would choose to work on?
00:07:50.05 Is this the experiment that I would have designed to test this question?
00:07:56.10 Would I have followed the results in this direction in order to pursue the problem
00:08:02.03 or would I have done it in a different way?
00:08:02.25 So we can ask these questions, do these reps, not only about our own work
00:08:08.12 which is crucial, but about everything around us
00:08:11.03 that we're immersed in this opportunity to be able to do the repetitions
00:08:15.08 that can move us toward the capacity of being terrific independent scientists.
00:08:21.08 Within each of those then, is the opportunity
00:08:28.09 to be able to choose that branch between
00:08:31.08 the safe approach, the safe problem, the safe experiment, the safe result
00:08:36.14 and the risky one, that may lead to something we just didn't expect
00:08:40.24 or don't understand at the present.
00:08:43.24 I think that much of our training does a good job at those first three skills
00:08:53.11 of recognizing problems, designing experiments, and choosing results.
00:08:58.23 I find it distressing that in fact, there is a tendency to discourage
00:09:06.05 especially students and post-docs and assistant professors, from taking risks.
00:09:13.09 That we are in fact advised against taking risks, we're told to play it safe,
00:09:19.07 to hold back, to be a little conservative, to wait until we're established
00:09:25.10 to wait until we're secure in our positions
00:09:29.12 before we start out to take risks.
00:09:32.03 This is a little bit like being asked to accomplish a very difficult skill,
00:09:40.11 in the gym if you will, without doing any reps
00:09:43.27 just walk in and do it.
00:09:45.21 That is hard and scary, and in my view,
00:09:49.08 tends to move us as a field, as individuals,
00:09:54.10 toward a lifetime of day science, according to François Jacob
00:10:00.05 Why should we take risks?
00:10:04.03 I think the answer is clear, that taking risks is at the heart of discovery
00:10:14.18 and that discovery is the reason that we are all trying to do science.
00:10:18.21 When should we take risks? When is the right time to do night science?
00:10:27.06 The answer is now. It is always time to do night science.
00:10:31.16 Every day is the right time to do night science.

This Talk
Speaker: Keith Yamamoto
Audience:
  • Researcher
Recorded: August 2010
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Talk Overview

Yamamoto argues that the trait that separates the best scientists from the rest is the willingness to take risks. He takes Francois Jacob as an example and encourages young scientists to try bold and uncertain approaches to problems since taking risks in science is at the heart of discovery.

Speaker Bio

Keith Yamamoto

Keith Yamamoto

For over 35 years, Keith Yamamoto has been a faculty member at the University of California, San Francisco where his lab studies the specificity and mechanisms by which intracellular receptors govern gene transcription networks. Currently Dr. Yamamoto is Vice Chancellor for Research at UCSF, Executive Vice Dean of the School of Medicine, and Professor of… Continue Reading

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