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Can research be planned?
Author(s) -
Gan Frank
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
embo reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.584
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1469-3178
pISSN - 1469-221X
DOI - 10.1038/sj.embor.embor752
Subject(s) - favourite , environmental ethics , public relations , political science , law , philosophy
Here is a conundrum: most scientists insist that research cannot be planned, and yet most of them will happily prepare proposals that outline their research for the next three years when applying for funds. It is certainly true that our research often leads us down unexpected avenues. Last year, my group was studying how the promoter of our favourite gene functions and now we are immersed in elucidating the role of the proteasome in the same process. When we embarked on our original strategy, we were unable to predict this change, and yet we would indeed have been foolish to ignore the results that pointed in this new direction. Ergo, research cannot be planned.Nor can the fruits and practical benefits of research be predicted with any accuracy. The fact that a biotech industry can be built up on the basis of supposedly ‘irrelevant’ studies of how bacteria protect themselves from infection is enough evidence for me …