Being a scientist - deliberation

[Aga]

Sometimes I deliberate on general subjects and I'm just curious. Just leaving aside salary issues...

Do you sometimes think that - as a scientist - you're a part of a huge scientific community, that your research play a tiny part in development of our understanding of nature?
Can we say that some kind of scientific community exists?

Do you believe that your results, maybe of little importance to general knowledge now (being highly specialistic, narrowed field) may be fundamental for some researchers in the future?

Are you sometimes aware of the fact that you have to share your knowledge and ideas with others, even though you'd like to have it all to yourself? But then you know you're not able to do everything, even if you wanted to...
I feel like that sometimes

Or maybe you don't pay any attention to the above issues and just work, work, work... till you drop?

[admin]

Hi Aga, that is an interesting question although a lot of our results are not well used by society in general at least for a long time. However don't worry there will be a use for all this knowledge in the near future.

It seems people don't share much information in research, however we should be working more collaboratively. Until society rewards collaboration, maybe there will be less sharing until people realize that great papers/work/research comes from working with many minds not 1 or a few.

[Microbiologist]

The second best momen of my scientific career was discovering something no one else had. For a moment, I was the only person in the world with that knowledge. I had been woking on a project for a long time, and I saw the results that confirmed my hypothesis while I was alone in the lab one night... The best moment of my career was when I got to share that with my colleagues the next day.

[Aga]

Oh yeah, that must have been a great feeling

[butters]

well, i just like troubleshooting problem. Usually the solution must be lower in cost challenging...

[Aga]

Butters - I like that approach. Finding solutions to problems is the best and the most efficient way to learn new things.

[butters]

now if only i can find problem