Inspiration Particles, and Other Misconceptions
Where does inspiration come from? I mean the insight that leads you to a new invention or that suddenly makes you aware of the solution to a problem?
In the feature on spectroscopy (see Three Gurus of Spectroscopy), Volker Deckert, Peter Griffith and Gary Hieftje give us their personal (and sometimes unconventional) views on the past, present and future of the field, including the dead ends that they have encountered. One of the questions deals with the secret of success, and Deckert offers “inspiration particles”, a term from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books, as his explanation. “People get hit by them, some more than others, and it leads to inventions and great developments”, he told us with a smile. Of course, he does not think that inspiration particles exist, he knows it is mostly a matter of hard work, many failures, and some successes.
Another analytical scientist who knows this is Eli Hvastkovs, the assistant professor at the center of a storm in a US university. He told his students not to thank God in their personal graduation statements. Hvastkovs preferred that the students take personal responsibility for their success and failures, and I can only agree with his sentiments. It can be comforting to accept answers, such as inspiration particles, that make us stop questioning. But it is not science.
Elsewhere in the issue, other misconceptions are addressed. Hans-Gerd Janssen argues against the continuously growing number of methods for analysis. While university researchers are highly motivated to develop new approaches, Janssen says they must start to realize that it is not what industry specialists want. And Marcus Macht pushes back against the mainstream perception that we can figure out full proteomes through a straight-forward head-count of the protein present. Not so, he says; a true understanding needs to take full account of the complexities of these astonishing macromolecules. Macht’s way forward is cooperation between the scientific community and instrument developers to solve the complexities of protein modification.
Each of these contributors sends us the message: “Do not be lazy scientists, we have some exploring ahead”. What’s in the full proteome? How do the components interact to make a cell work? How do particular cells then achieve particular tasks, such as a granulocyte going for an intruding bacterium? And so on…
Yes, we are getting closer to the big answers, but we’ll have to keep on asking difficult questions and working hard to gain inspiration.
Just once in a while, however, when you are really tired of it all, inspiration can hit you out of the blue. I’m sure that you have experienced it. We don’t fully understand Eureka moments yet, and it may take neuroscientists and psychologists many years to find out. But take my word for it: it happens to some more than others, and the answer is not inspiration particles.
Frank van Geel is owner of educational website Chromedia and Scientific Director of The Analytical Scientist. He studied analytical chemistry, specialized in mass spectrometry in the Netherlands and did several years of post-doc work in spectroscopy with Jim Winefordner at the University of Florida in the US. Then he became a science teacher and later publisher in chemistry and physics related topics. He developed numerous publications in chemistry and other sciences. He strongly supports the mission: Building online communities is the road to take. We need to strengthen the quality of analytical chemistry and we need to strengthen our community by sharing know-how and by sharing our opinions, visions and our views of the future of analytical science.
