Research Ideas: Part 1

About 11 years ago the best research idea that I ever had came from a post-doc. We were discussing the best approach to a four membered ring and he suggested a room temperature route that flew in the face of the standard medieval "heat it until something reacts" route. There was some shouting and I will admit to some childish name-calling. We finally reached an agreement that he would first try the medieval route and if there was any remaining sample of a key intermediate he could give his route a shot. My way worked ... his way worked better.




It just so happened that later that year I organized a symposium in this area at a national chemistry conference where my big news would be this low temperature route. I took a couple of minutes to sketch out the full story and abjectly gave the post-doc all the credit for the break-through. The response was crazy. I had post-docs buying me drinks and faculty slapping me on the back and laughing about how it was the funniest research seminar they ever attended. My real benefit however was the response of the post-doc. The credit for the breakthrough was really trivial in terms of my academic career but that room was full of the post-doc's potential employers, paper referees and future colleagues. Since then he has shamed me by including me in his success (which has been considerable)and giving me credit for everything from the part in his hair to the colour of his Keck clips. It cost me nothing really but the benefit has been huge.

We say that chemistry is a meritocracy where the beauty of the idea supersedes all other aspects of our behaviour. That may be a limited truth. I have been to conferences where I was on the "inside" and valued by my colleagues. I have also been to conferences where I was a ghost. Polanyi says "we know more than we can tell" and research is like that. There is more to research than the idea and the glory ... there are the intangibles such as relationship and continuity of progress that just don't get measured. My post-doc taught me that lesson, I was fortunate to have been listening that day.