''The world of science is very fascinating and exciting. It is made up of intelligent beings. Actually these people are driving the world. How thrilling it would be to invent or discover new things! I want to experience this sensational field by becoming a part of it". The words of an young girl with starry eyes and dreamy thoughts!

But, is her idea of world of science correct? Each and every scientist knows this is only a partial picture!

Research in science is an extremely  difficult arena. Failure, frustration and (mental) fatigue constitute the first base camp of scientists' journey. They  might also become their second, third and fourth camps. Things will never be rosy in the beginning in the arena of science.  But, oh, yes, you reach glorious peaks only after you overcome several of these 'f's.

First you have to face rejections of grant/ fellowship applications. Even if you get them after several attempts, your tedious journey has only just begun. The most difficult part of research is the first six months. You will be like a baby lost in the woods. You have to figure out how to survive the wilderness, find a way out on your own, gather the most interesting things you come across, then try to help the world with your 'grand experiences'. 

Without failure, we lack a complete picture of science. And we lack a complete picture of the scientist beyond the brainy stereotype. 

Students should be made to understand how hard it is to do research. And how very, very hard it is to do important research. It's a lot harder than taking even very demanding courses. What makes it difficult is that research is immersion in the unknown. We just don't know what we're doing. We can't be sure whether we're asking the right question or doing the right experiment until we get the answer or the result. Admittedly, science is made harder by competition for grants and space in top journals.

Okay, you figured out how to go about your work. But you cannot feel relief, never in science. Only when you start your first experiment after intelligent planning, you will realize how difficult favourable outcomes and success will be. You never know what can spoil your   result.

Because very often you would be the first person to walk on that particular road. So facing several obstructions is inevitable. 

After several attempts , finally you found out something new. Your 'that is interesting' moment has come and you want to share it with the world. How? By publishing it!  

What you have discovered or invented is hard enough but telling your colleagues what you have found and convincing them is the worst nightmare (that is why peer-reviewed  paper-publishing is so difficult)!  

Be prepared for rejection after rejection and ' that is not very funny' moments. Say yes to get corrected. Then after several amendments and alterations, you might find a journal that accepts your 'interesting work'. Aha, you published your first paper and can now feel a sigh of relief. Wait, not yet. Your next grade of fellowship needs at least two-three peer-reviewed publications. So start the circus all over again!  

Then you succeed in publishing your papers and get promotion to your next level. The cycle starts all over again!

Finally after 5-6 years, you and your guide think you have done enough and got sufficient positive stuff to write a thesis on. It takes about a year to make all the data settle into  a pattern and after sorting it out, you write your thesis based on it and submit it. 

Now three experts in your field will assess it and when at least two of them say your work is significant, your thesis will be accepted. Then comes viva voce - sometimes an  open one where everybody in your field will try to rip you apart! Somehow you come out of it without much damage and you will be awarded your Ph.D. degree. Congratulations you are a trained scientist now! 

What? All this is only training?!  

Yes, buddy! Try to figure out now how difficult the next road will be!

Am I frightening you? But this is the reality of the world of science! This is not a place for cowards and impatient types!

Now scientists are trying to paint this exact picture to their young colleagues and make them mentally prepare for it. You usually see only positive things in a scientist's CV like how many papers they published, how many grants they got, how many awards and prizes they obtained, how many positions they occupied. No body mentions about their failures.  That is not the right way to make youngsters realize the ups and downs of this field. 

So, some innovative thinking scientists are bringing out their CVs of failures too. You can find them by clicking on the links below

A CV of failures: Melanie Stefan

http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/articles/10.1038/nj7322-467a

CV of failures: JOHANNES HAUSHOFER

https://www.princeton.edu/~joha/Johannes_Haushofer_CV_of_Failures.pdf

SAM’S CV OF FAILURES

http://everydayscientist.com/CV/sjl_CV-failures.pdf

Failure in Science Is Frequent and Inevitable--and We Should Talk More about it

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/failure-in-science-i...

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/why-scientists-must...

http://scienceconfessionals.com/

Should We Embrace Failure In Science More? Thoughts From An Unconference

http://www.forbes.com/sites/sujatakundu/2016/08/31/should-we-embrac...

Here is an example of how others are using the data of failures for their benefit:  Machine learning assisted materials discovery using failed materials

http://www.nature.com/articles/nature17439.epdf?referrer_access_tok...

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lab-failures-turn-to-gold...

Revealing the struggles that lie behind ultimate success can motivate students better—from grade school to grad school

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/are-our-scientific-h...

People from other fields too are trying to do the same. 

Few examples:

http://media.wix.com/ugd/c7aa4c_95ef1a83efb24c58883e653e0c4b2e6b.pdf

https://novoed.com/creativity13/reports/49074

Lessons learnt: Research in Science is not easy and frequent failures are part of it. Enter the field  well prepared for them. 

You do science not because it is easy  but because it is difficult. Success in the field  proves how strong you are mentally.

A scientist will never be  afraid of making mistakes. Indeed scientists make lots of them. And very silly ones. If you hear about them you think scientists are dumb! But the great difference between ordinary people and scientists is the mistakes scientists make prepare them to search for alternate routes that lead them to new horizons.

Brilliant Blunders: From Darwin to Einstein - Colossal Mistakes by Great Scientists That Changed Our Understanding of Life and the Universe

Charles Darwin, William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), Linus Pauling, Fred Hoyle, and Albert Einstein all made groundbreaking contributions to their fields—but each also stumbled badly. Darwin’s theory of natural selection shouldn’t have worked, according to the prevailing beliefs of his time. Lord Kelvin gravely miscalculated the age of the earth. Linus Pauling, the world’s premier chemist, constructed an erroneous model for DNA in his haste to beat the competition to publication. Astrophysicist Fred Hoyle dismissed the idea of a “Big Bang” origin to the universe (ironically, the caustic name he gave to this event endured long after his erroneous objections were disproven). And Albert Einstein speculated incorrectly about the forces of the universe—and that speculation opened the door to brilliant conceptual leaps. As Mario Livio luminously explains in this “thoughtful meditation on the course of science itself” , these five scientists expanded our knowledge of life on earth, the evolution of the earth, and the evolution of the universe, despite and because of their errors.

https://www.amazon.com/Brilliant-Blunders-Einstein-Scientists-Under...

Like Einstein said...People say it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong. It is their personality that takes them to greater heights.

If you want to live the life of a scientist  go after difficult problems until you make them unproblematic!

Karl Marx had said in his Das Kapital: "There is no royal road to science, and only those who do not dread the fatiguing climb of its steep paths have a chance of gaining its luminous summits.”

Bottom Line: Scientists never  fail. They just find out 10,000 ways that won’t work. And 10001th one will definitely work for them!