These are pieces written to desribe what it is like working in science.
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Zeitgeist is a german term meaning ‘spirit of the time’. More precisely we use it to mean the ‘intellectual trends of the current era’. Thinking about Zeitgeist means thinking about this question: ‘What is there, lying just over the horizon, at the extreme limits of our peripheral vision, that one day will have a profound impact on our work?’
But is trying to find the answer to this question enough justification for spending a morning discussing our responses this rather nebulous idea? I think there are several reasons that make this a worthwhile exercise. Here they are.
First, despite the veneer of intellectual rigor, science can be very much a fashion industry. Certain areas of research suddenly develop a prominence that propels them to the attention of many workers. This makes them attractive because their current relevance helps to get the work published in high impact journals. On the other hand, it also makes for a crowded playing field, where competition can be fierce and uncompromising. If something that you’re doing is about to move into this fast lane, it’s very helpful if you can see it coming.
Second, science moves forwards as new problems, that were previously intractable, become accessible to new techniques, ideas and understanding. This idea was developed by Peter Medawar, in a book called ‘The Art of the Soluble’ that was published in 1967. The best problems to solve are those that are hard, but not impossible. The answer to an easy question is unlikely to advance out understanding of the world; one that can’t be answered never will. But with an appreciation of Zeitgeist, we may be able to recognise that which we couldn’t do yesterday, that we can do today.
Third, a sense of Zeitgeist is a way of benchmarking your work against the work that is going on all around you. It is quite easy, especially for students toiling away on a very specific problem as part of a PhD project, to loose site of where they are in relation to everyone else. This is why we encourage lab members to attend meetings, to get a sense of what else is going on in the world. If you don’t do this, it’s quite easy to make catastrophic mistakes which can be difficult to recover from.
Finally, I think that it’s fun. Sometimes it’s great to remember that it is a privilege of our work, to be able to look at all the wonderful research that is going on in the world, and give it some deep and serious thought. If we are going to be criticised for being too intellectual about problems, then let’s at least get to enjoy it from time to time!
Lindsay Nicholson.