Out of Cape Cod Tonight;

Next semester, i’ll be starting on my undergraduate thesis. While I am pretty excited, I am mostly terrified. Mostly because I am expected to accomplish this within a certain time period, and not doing so would probably mean delaying my graduation, which is something that I definitely don’t want to happen.

Uri Alon narrates in his TED talk (linked below) how he found himself, time and time and again, stuck in the middle of performing scientific research, and how improvisation theater made him realize that this phase was actually an essential part of the process. I agree with him when he stated that scientific research is mostly seen as objective and rational, not recognizing its subjective and emotional aspect, which is where some researchers actually find breakthroughs and alternative answers, a phase Alon termed as ‘The Cloud’. A person ends up in this cloud when experiments don’t work and he/she gets lost, but this cloud enables individuals to reflect and think of better and more innovative answers to their problems rather than their expected result.

Studying in a very research-centered university, my fellow students and I are taught how to do research; from thinking of a research topic, performing it, to defending it and getting it published, and are expected to get it all right the first try. We are afraid of getting it wrong. Teach us not to be. Teach us that it’s okay to be lost in the cloud. Teach us to be creative and imaginative with our ideas. Teach us to say ‘Yes and..!’