The Making of a Scientist

Ramachandran

The most important quality that is needed for a person to pursue a career in science is passionate curiosity. That is, curiosity needs to dominate his/her life.  To some extent, curiosity is our innate personality trait. It arises from early associations. The best formula for success is to be friend with those people who are passionate and enthusiastic about what they do. Ramachandran was very fortunate in this regard because in his school as well as in college, he had some helpful science teachers. At home also, there was the influence of his science-minded uncles. Moreover, he was always inspired by his parents.

Ramachandran was interested in science from an early age. Though he was a lonely and socially awkward child, he was companioned by nature. The natural world was his private playground. Perhaps science was his escape from the social world. That escape into his private world made him feel special and privileged. It allowed him to rise above normal life.

Ramachandran had interest in different disciplines. He loved history, archaeology, and art. Together with his colleague, he had tried to explain the script of the Indus Valley. He was interested in anthropology and ethnology. He was obsessed with paleontology and collected fossils in the field. Moreover, he was passionate about chemistry and often mixed chemicals together just to see what would happen. Another passion of his was entomology. He enjoyed collecting bugs and dreamed of becoming India’s foremost entomologist. He also experimented with ants.

Modern science is immensely successful. But Ramachandran says because of its fascination with technology, a lot of research tends to be driven by methodology and gadgets rather than by problems. He argues that a scientific discovery gets more significance if it has been done with less time and effort. For instance, the greatest biological discovery of the 20th century, the structure of DNA, was made with bits of wire and plastic in less than six months. For the writer, a fundamental scientific problem is not more difficult to solve than a minor one because nature is not conspiring against us to hide her secrets. So, he says, it is better to focus on the former.

The writer argues that technology drives science as surely as ideas do. That is, both technology and ideas are equally important for the progress in science. Certainly, the invention of different tools like the computer, telescope, and the microscope has facilitated the scientists in their research works.

The writer gives two reasons why he chose neurology as his professional career. The first reason is it is a field where it is possible to do Faraday-style research and come up with surprising answers with far-reaching implications. The second reason has more to do with curiosity. As we are very curious about ourselves, neurology is a discipline that takes us right into the heart of the problem of who we are. 

Many people choose a scientific career in the hope of becoming famous. But such thinking does not occupy center stage in the writer’s mind. He chose a scientific career because doing science is fun for him and because many of his experiments have influenced the thinking of-of his colleagues.