Working in uncharted scientific territory

08.18.2010 // Science // abhishektiwari // 4 Comments

Not much food for your reading today, just pointers to two interesting articles about how young scientists can shape their careers by following uncharted scientific territories.
Bridging the Gap between Scientific Disciplines

With math, if you do it once — unless you made a mistake — it’s going to be the same every time you do it. However, if I put on my biology hat, it’s very hard to come up with a mathematical model that abstracts at the right level because [the biology is] very complex. It’s almost an art, really.

Clearly, there are risk involved in this process but science cannot afford to skimp on innovation just because there are high risks.
Taking “The Road Not Taken”: On the Benefits of Diversifying Your Academic Portfolio

New discoveries are naturally made in unexplored territories. Young people are more capable of exploring the “roads not taken” because they lack an unwarranted baggage of prejudice (or adopt a flat Bayesian prior) on the likelihood of discovery along these roads. The window of opportunity in a scientist’s career is often short: after tenure, most senior researchers get distracted by administrative and fund-raising concerns, and prefer to maintain a conservative profile that promotes old ideas within their discipline.

In second article Abraham Loeb recommends a new investment strategy for young researchers,
• 50% in bonds (mainstream research areas mostly incremental, low-risk )
• 30% in stocks (evolving research areas soon or later to be mainstream, medium risk)
• 20% in venture capital (innovative and interdeciplinary research areas or uncharted territory , high-risk)
I hope you will enjoy both articles.