<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/f6acb049-0f55-4b5e-a062-eb5f1fe0e8cb/DBB9022B-402E-4E22-9ED3-44320F2A3B67/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://jcs.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/121/11/1771" href="http://jcs.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/121/11/1771" style="font-size: 11px;">jcs.biologists.org</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://jcs.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/121/11/1771"><H2> The importance of stupidity in scientific research</H2></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://jcs.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/121/11/1771"><NOBR>Martin A. Schwartz</NOBR></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://jcs.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/121/11/1771"><FONT size="-1"> Department of Microbiology, UVA Health System, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22908, USA </FONT></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://jcs.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/121/11/1771"><P> Productive stupidity means being ignorant by choice. Focusing<SUP> </SUP>on important questions puts us in the awkward position of being<SUP> </SUP>ignorant. One of the beautiful things about science is that<SUP> </SUP>it allows us to bumble along, getting it wrong time after time,<SUP> </SUP>and feel perfectly fine as long as we learn something each time.<SUP> </SUP>No doubt, this can be difficult for students who are accustomed<SUP> </SUP>to getting the answers right. No doubt, reasonable levels of<SUP> </SUP>confidence and emotional resilience help, but I think scientific<SUP> </SUP>education might do more to ease what is a very big transition:<SUP> </SUP>from learning what other people once discovered to making your<SUP> </SUP>own discoveries. The more comfortable we become with being stupid,<SUP> </SUP>the deeper we will wade into the unknown and the more likely<SUP> </SUP>we are to make big discoveries.<SUP> </SUP></P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/DBB9022B-402E-4E22-9ED3-44320F2A3B67/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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