Pure Research

This is part 2 of a multi-part post. Part one was If at First You Succeed, Try, Try Again.

Another reason to keep searching, even after finding “the answer,” is that if we only look for the answers, we are limited by our ability to imagine the questions.

In the sciences, there are the concepts of pure research and applied research. In pure research, one usually has no precise idea of what the results might be used for, only that a hole in our knowledge exists. When the British Chancellor of the Exchequer visited the laboratory of Michael Faraday, perhaps the first scientist to have his work publicly funded, he said, “This is all very interesting, but what good is it?” It was pure research, so Faraday responded, “Sir, I do not know.” Then he added, “but someday you will tax it.” That question was limited by imagination. Faraday didn’t know the answer but he cast a wide net and could feel that something would come of it. By the way, the thing Faraday was in the process of discovering was electromagnetism. From spark plugs to iPhones, it is what separates our world from the world of the steam engine. Not bad for research that had no known use at the time.

For some ancestors we may feel lucky to find birth, marriage and death dates. Then we move on. It is true that for some ancestors, those things might be all we ever know. For others, those might be the answers we want, so they become the basis for the questions we ask. If they are the only questions, their answers will be all we ever learn. Sometimes pure research, without predefined questions, is the way to get the right answers.

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