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THE MAKING OF A SCIENTIST

V.S. Ramachandran, India (1951-)

  • In The Making of a Scientist, the writer presents his own experience of becoming a scientist. He is currently a neurologist and is working in the field of brain research. He talks about science and ways to become a scientist. He said one needs some obsessive qualities and should be curious about science to become a scientist so that curiosity dominates one’s life. He showed his interest in various fields like chemistry, history, physics, botany etc. He explained about his family members who have helped in various ways and their support whilst his study determined him to become a scientist. Due to his curiosity and interest in science, he presented himself to become a successful neurologist. He focuses on two questions that matter his life when he looks over his life: how much impact has he had? and how much fun?
  • This essay discusses the requirements to become a successful scientist. According to Ramachandran, obsessive and passionate curiosity, association with enthusiastic people, encouragement from the family and financial independence can give a true scientist. He believes science prospers when you enjoy your work and have an intense passion towards it. The one who is not limited to just one field but many fields of interest can develop a scientist out of oneself.  It means curiosity needs to dominate your life. Science is most fun when it is in its infancy or not fully clarified as there is more space for curiosity. For him, the scientists who lived in the past were more active and deeply interested in their fields. You must find pleasure in the field of your profession. He compares science with romantic love both of which require enthusiasm and eagerness. Science is not just limited to how much fun you obtain from it but also to the fact that what impact it will have.
  • According to Ramachandran, family, education and social factors are also equally contributing factors for one to become a scientist. He talks about having an interest in broad topics\disciplines. He belongs to a well-off and educated family who always helped him to do his home experiments. And fortunately, he also got supporting teachers and lectures that also promoted his interest towards science. And according to him, curiosity is not enough for one to be a scientist. One should be pathologically, passionately, and obsessively curious. He also encourages the reader to love their subjects. Because unless one loves his subject, he couldn't enjoy it. And unless one enjoys the subject, success cannot be achieved.
  • Ramachandran expresses his idea that poems inspire people to do good in the fields of science as science and literature are correlated as both possess a romantic vision of the world. He presents the development of a scientist as a process that requires proper support and environment from family and society. He correlates science and poetry and expresses how he devised enthusiasm from poetry and literature to build up a romantic vision of this world for becoming a scientist. He expresses how one should be able to escape from the exile of the actual world and create a private world driven by the influences of other successful people and nature to create a true scientist out of oneself. He perceives that the scope and flourish of ‘Science’ is best in an atmosphere of complete freedom and financial independence. Technology and ideas are the dominant factors in exploring the importance of ‘Science’ in society. Becoming a scientist is fruitful for human civilisation only when we enrich our optimum point of expertise and spread to other fields.

SUMMARY:

The Making of a Scientist’ is an essay written by V.S. Ramachandran. It is an opinionated and descriptive essay based on his own experiences. The essay describes the writer’s opinion of how a scientist can be mustered (come up/Gather or bring together). The essay focuses on how a scientist can be made by dealing with the most significant requirements for it. Ramachandran begins with one of the most important elements to be a scientist which is a sense of curiosity and wonder. He also states that one has to be ready to tolerate physical discomfort. 

For him, science is a love affair with nature but one has to be on the lap of nature to establish romantic love. To be near nature is certainly an adventurous task, one needs to face many difficulties while playing with nature. Ramachandran believes that stimuli (INPUT/STIMULATION) and inspiration also play vital roles to change a person into a scientist. His teachers, and lecturers in his school and college days, had inspired him himself. In his family, his uncle had motivated him to be a scientist; his mother had brought seashells so that he could research them. He had got a chemistry lab opened under his staircase. His father had bought a microscope for him. Hence, one should be motivating family and environment to be a scientist who is further supported when he claims that the Victorian era was an encouraging time which had produced the scientists like Darwin and Huxley. Ramachandran believed that one has to isolate from the mundane world and be studious about those dead scientists treating them as living people. Similarly, Ramachandran believes that a scientist should have an interest in different aspects of the earth. He himself had studied in different fields like civilisation; he loved anthropology; the survival strategy taken by a plant etc. Hence, he believed that the intense zeal (EAGERNESS) of doing research and the ability to find a sense of fun is another quality of a scientist. Undoubtedly, a scientist should feel a sense of fascination while performing any kind of experiment.

To conclude, scientists’ interests, hobbies, and environment should be something extra than those of normal ones. To be a scientist one should be obsessively, passionately and pathologically curious. As science is a subject of creation, freedom and independence, people should understand that the absence of anyone results in the failure of innovations. One should be ready to get and face difficulties. According to Ramachandran, when you have complete freedom, you can have new ideas which flourish in the field of science. He relates science with poetry with a view that both involve certain romantic visions of the world.

The writer explains the nature and behaviour of a scientist. He clarifies how a scientist is. He, from his own life experiences, also vividly tells us about the life of a scientist to some extent. 

Bibliography

Ramachandran, V. (2013). The Making of a Scientist. In M. Nissani, & S. Lohani, Flax Golden Tales: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Learning English (pp. 182-189). Kathmandu, Nepal: Ekta Books.

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