I’m a scientist. And I believe that a scientist should always have an open and inquisitive mind to be successful. If you have pre-concieved notions, you will not be able to treat your data unbiasedly. You would get a result that YOU WANT and not what the data is telling you. But on the other hand, eventhough you are unbiased and open-minded, does the society around you always let you putforth what you have found? Does it accept the results no matter how againsts the “established facts” they are? We do not see that happening too often. There are innumerable exaples in human history where scientists have had to face various consequences because religious establishments, politicians or other such influencial people in society didn’t “like” what they were being told. And this has continued till the day. We still here these whispers about prestigious government or scientific organisations themselves carrying out cover-ups and withhelding information from public. Sometimes it is justufiable becasue release of some “truths” could cause universal havoc. This reflects on our mentality as humans. We are not very welcoming of change. We want to live in our comfort zone and very rarely do we want to try or accept something completely new, unknown.

The reason I felt like writing this blog entry is because I’ve been watching some interesting videos and reading books about theories researchers have put forward which are completely new or against the established science. When I read the book or watch the video, the research seems very logical and evidence compelling. However, in many cases, the research and evidence for the contrasting theory is equally solid. And then one starts thinking, what is it? Is it that every researcher just picks the pieces of information that hold up their theory and ignore the rest? Or is it that there is some fundamental flaw in our understanding of things around us, science, nature, history, even human evolution?

In school we are taught certain scientific “facts” and “theories”. And we grow with them, not questioning them really, either out of lack of knowledge at that age or out of sheer “follow the establishment” mentality. Those of us who do not chose scientific careers, do not ever need to bother about them really (unless you are scientifically inclined). But those who do, I’m sure, do come across comflicting views and research to what we have grown up believing, at some stage of career. It might be in your own research field or some other which you follow merely as interest, not as career. Some people chose to ignore it or just stop researching in that direction in fear of stumbling upon something completely astonishing but equally adverse to the “established” norms. But then there are others (like the authors of the books I’m reading recently and makers of the videos I’m watching) who dare to follow their heart and more importantly, brain. Next few of my blog entries are going to feature some such “out there” reasearchers and review their research.