Research: an Art! [1/2]
We can not deny the fact that "RESEARCH is the lifeblood for the future's sustainability".
It is also true that many challenges are being introduced to humanity arise from science and technology, but we can improve the positive side of pursuing science and technology. For the moment, we will only focus on the basics of research. Later on, in future articles, we will try to collect the ideas about safeguarding humanity and our potential.
Let's start with the most basic question about research! What does research constitute? We often want to achieve something or have the ability to do something, experience, or become a new version of the past. We might think of it as a long reflection of our past experiences on the other side of the future.
Often this is difficult or impossible because we lack the connecting dots of knowledge and the adequate experiences to do it, and we end up focusing on here and now. It is important to state that our focus on explaining the research is not only about the process of making that missing knowledge but also research should be aiming towards seeking the answers to questions that are for a greater cause and open new directions for the betterment of future humanity. The proceeding section, when we write the word knowledge, includes both of the above-mentioned aspects.
Knowledge about any topic or subfields normally precedes knowledge of how to do things. It is knowledge about the scattering of random ideas centered around any specific problem that we are looking for.
We can define research as a set of arrangements to collect the fringes of post-collision of any well-thought idea with a pre-defined problem statement. And leading towards building a bridge of knowledge that does not yet exist. To make a clearer picture of it, let us elaborate, assume that you have a topological defect analog to any pre-defined problem statement. Now we are sending a wavefront towards the defect and then trying to observe the scattered wavefronts post-collision. Different ideas are as incoming wavefronts in this analogy, and the possible solutions are outgoing scattered modes. Knowledge about any area, subfield, and topic is necessary before developing the ability to introduce something.
How the above understanding fits into our research? In the technical fields, especially in engineering, we often want to have the ability to invent or innovate. I [Bose.X] am sure you can think of many things that we would like to have the ability to do.
Let us take a practical example that is natural to everyone. We might say we would like to be able to develop a fuel-efficient car or become less dependent on fossil fuels or build gearboxes that make less noise. There are several such examples that we would like to be able to do and achieve. We would like to have the ability to do these things via accepting already done research work or formulating a conventional way to collect suitable data set about the puzzle.
However, we often cannot develop these abilities because the knowledge that we need to develop them is missing. In the case of the fuel-efficient car, we might need to know more about the combustion process so that we can better optimize it.
A word on the difference between knowing about the world and ability knowledge:
I can write down the list of ingredients in my bread and recipe. I can write down the temperature that the oven should be at. Knowledge about the world can be written down. This kind of knowledge can be drawn and advertised in the community. And later, someone else can also improve on my recipe. As time goes forth, we can expect a better and better outcome.
Ability knowledge: knowing how to, that resides in a person. This kind of knowledge cannot be copied and spread around. If you want the ability to do something, you either need to develop it yourself or hire somebody as a consultant. Everyone who wants to develop an ability needs to start from nothing and become an expert in it. It is not possible to start building on the experience of a former expert.
So, the take-home message from this segment is that in our research, we have the ability knowledge and knowledge about the world that can be written down. Your research must be focused on making knowledge about any chosen arena, which can add to exploring the solutions to issues for a more prominent impact.