THE ART OF SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION 



Their originality may have derived from their diverse knowledge. 

 As we shall see in a later chapter on Imagination, originality 

 often consists in linking up ideas whose connection was not pre- 

 viously suspected. Furthermore, variety stimulates freshness of 

 outlook whereas too constant study of a narrow field predisposes 

 to dullness. Therefore reading ought not to be confined to the 

 problem under investigation nor even to one's own field of science, 

 nor, indeed, to science alone. However, outside one's immediate 

 interests, in order to minimise time spent in reading, one can read 

 for the most part superficially, relying on summaries and reviews 

 to keep abreast of major developments. Unless the research 

 worker cultivates wide interests his knowledge may get narrower 

 and narrower and restricted to his own speciality. One of the 

 advantages of teaching is that it obliges the scientist to keep 

 abreast of developments in a wider field than he otherwise would. 



It is more important to have a clear understanding of general 

 principles, without, however, thinking of them as fixed laws, than 

 to load the mind with a mass of detailed technical infonnation 

 which can readily be found in reference books or card indexes. 

 For creative thinking it is more important to see the wood than 

 the trees ; the student is in danger of being able to see only the 

 trees. The scientist with a mature mind, who has reflected a good 

 deal on scientific matters, has not only had time to accumulate 

 technical details but has acquired enough perspective to see the 

 wood. 



Nothing that has been said above ought to be interpreted as 

 depreciating the importance of acquiring a thorough grounding 

 in the fundamental sciences. The value to be derived from super- 

 ficial and "skim" reading over a wide field depends to a large 

 extent on the reader having a background of knowledge which 

 enables him quickly to assess the new work reported and grasp 

 any significant findings. There is much truth in the saying that 

 in science the mind of the adult can build only as high as the 

 foundations constructed in youth will support. 



In reading that does not require close study it is a great help 

 to develop the art of skim-reading. Skimming properly done 

 enables one to cover a large amount of literature with economy 

 of time, and to select those parts which are of special interest. 

 Some styles of writing, of course, lend themselves more to skim- 



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