Career
Importance of Information and Data
Information and Data is important is executing Scientific Research. The proper knowledge and implementation is required to build a successful Career…
Everything starts with information, for example there is a college in Mumbai which has 3500 students. It is an Arts & Science College. There are 1300 girls and rest are boys. So this can be called information in technical terms. Now in other words, same college is a prestigious Institute in Maharashtra as well as in India. It has produced not less than 27 scientist belonging to the science stream. Five international Economist & 3 IAS officers are alumnus of this college. There is a tough entrance to enter into this college, which allows only one student out of 13 students appearing for that examination. This then becomes an important data of national interest, as well as for those who want to study in the Science and Arts streams after 10th or 12th standard.
Data
Another example of big data is about Corona epidemic which troubled the whole world. How many people got infected? How many died & in which country? What was the death rate? This can be called as simple information. But when you start digging into that information with segregating numbers that is how many above 80 yrs died, how many above 60 yrs died, how many were having other collateral diseases along with covid-19 virus? This becomes important medico social data.
Analytics
Still further, if one examines whether a country was successful in lock down and control covid-19 or lock down was unnecessary in that country? Using mask was very effective or not? Using mask really prevented each and every person from getting infected? This is analysing the data for some sort of experiment or research purpose.
Results
In research no one knows the result of the experiment. In other words you cannot conclude the outcome of the research. You have to accept the outcome as it comes which is the pre requisite for research. Most of the classic inventions in the human history are totally accidental. They are serendipitous outcome of unscheduled research work or even accidental one. First antibiotic Penicillin, was an accidental outcome.
Physics & Chemistry have some lineage of sequential outcome with interaction of elements. But Bioscience is a very vast subject for collecting data and analysing is equally complex. In life sciences everyday some species get extinct, some species change their habitat, migrate and modify accordingly. Most of the bacteria as well as viruses mutate for some reason to survive.
Fallacies & Blind faith
Keeping blind faith on some of the hypothesis or the concepts while learning or in research work is not unknown in the scientific community. Such dogmatic interpretations hamper research. Getting over it is and sticking to the rational thinking is required. This is the important point to be a scientist or researcher. It is the responsibility or in technical language logic.
Variables in Research
In principle, things work in normal habitat or in normal situation in laboratory in accordance with the physical or chemical theories. but sometimes what is proven in the labs shows deviations in real life. For example the laws about temperature, pressure, volume are very well defined in Physics and taught in for last 100 years. But when it comes to Climate theories sometimes it is not possible to predict with the same accuracy as in laboratory. The reason is unanswerable because of huge data variations are involved in it.
Another example is still obscure even to understand, the surface temperature of sun is around 6000 Degree Celsius, but the same temperature rises to more than 10 lakh Degrees Celsius as you go away from the surface of the Sun. which is still an unexplained phenomenon.
Moon is very close to earth as compared to other planets but still we don’t know or know very little about the other side moon which we don’t see from Earth.
Superconductivity is the dream of human beings. It is achieved in laboratory 25 years back, but in practice it has eluded us constantly.
Genome of all viruses is known or analysed in the Laboratories. But treating the viruses is totally unknown to us and no medicines are available.
Big Data
Understanding of the system or structure does not mean that you can control it. Such grey areas are always very challenging for the researcher. The information and data plays key role in the advancement of Science…Big Data and Information plays a bigger role…
Dr Shreeram Geet
Senior Career Counsellor
