Just thought you might like to read this essay

Journal of Cell Science 121, 1771 (2008)
The Importance of Stupidity in Science
Martin A. Schwartz

http://jcs.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/121/11/1771



Nikou

when things go bad at lab, it's very interesting to known why? some times it helps to do new and more useful things

we had this thread long ago as far as I can remember.

Nabi on Feb 25 2009, 12:44 AM said:

This paper has won its ticket to the department's bulletin board. ^^

I think it's true what he says,... but how can one "enjoy" his/her stupidity when struggeling for grants?

dersven on Mar 3 2009, 06:36 AM said:

there is a very stupid person in our lab that keeps breaking things.

Title not withstanding, the paper focused on feeling stupid - not stupidity per se. Clearly neither the author nor his attorney friend were stupid.

This signficance of the article is reinforced by the comments of Linus Pauling about the discovery of the double helix. Watson Crick et al. were in competition with his lab to discover the struture (tho they were so low on the fame scale that he was barely aware of their efforts). Despite his credentials as a Nobel laureatte and the power of money and talent, he lost out. When asked years later, he said that he figured no one could compete with him intellectually, resource-wise, etc. It was his to discover and he could do it at his leisure. Pauling certainly didn't feel stupid.

I agree. There is a distinct difference between feeling stupid and actually being stupid...