THE ART OF SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION 



quite unforeseen, and that the principal elements in biological 

 research are intensely individual efforts in (a) recognising the 

 unexpected discovery and following it up, and {b) concentrated 

 prolonged mental effort resulting in the birth of ideas. Major 

 discoveries probably result less frequently from the systematic 

 accumulation of data along planned lines. It is not a fact, as 

 some suppose, that no solution to a problem is likely to be 

 found until we have fundamental knowledge on the subject. 

 Frequently an empirical discovery is made providing a solution 

 and the rationale is worked out afterwards. One of the 

 principal morals to be drawn from the discoveries described in 

 this book is that the research worker ought not, having decided 

 on a course of action, to put on mental blinkers and, like a cart- 

 horse, confine his attention to the road ahead and see nothing by 

 the way. 



In view of these lessons which are to be learnt from the 

 history of scientific discovery, research is less likely to 

 be fruitful where the investigation is planned at the tactical 

 level by a committee than when the person actually doing the 

 research works out his own tactics as the investigation unfolds. 

 Research is for most workers an individualistic thing and the 

 responsibility for tactical planning is best left to the individual 

 workers, who will devote their mental energies to the subject if 

 they are allowed the incentives and rewards that are essential 

 for fruitful research. Initiative can be easily discouraged by too 

 much supervision for a man will seldom put his whole heart 

 into a problem unless he feels that it is his own. Simon Flexner, 

 the founder of the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research, 

 always believed that men of the right sort could be trusted to 

 have better ideas than others could think up for them." The 

 scientist should not even be expected to adhere in detail to a 

 programme of work which he himself has drawn up, but should 

 be allowed to vary it as developments require. 



The late Professor W. W. C. Topley said : 



" Committees are dangerous things that need most careful 

 watching. I believe that a research committee can do one useful 

 thing and one only. It can find the workers best fitted to attack 

 a particular problem, bring them together, give them the facilities 

 they need, and leave them to get on with the work. It can review 



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