Sentient Science

Last week, yet another business trip to Bangkok, one of hundreds so that now Bangkok is somewhere between a second home and paradise. Anyhow, this time it was a gruelling one as I was part of a team of R&D professionals trying to solve a mysterious problem in one of our products. I spent quite a few days prior to the visit boning up on past work, and there were plenty of old R&D reports I could lay my hands on. Boss informed to ensure we could reproduce the problem i.e illuminate the problem so that the causative factors can be identified. I thought that was Catch 22, if I knew what the causative factors were, we could at least plan technical approaches to solving the problem. This is the funny thing about science. In some ways, it touts to rely on facts, facts and facts, but too often we have hypotheses or correlating factors. These are not root causes. In an industry like ours, the correlating factors are many, facts fewer to identify. This is not because there is not enough science, there is plenty but the systems are hard, non-equilibrium structures that cannot be tested non-destructively. Anyhow, so armed with hypotheses , I did a square dance with other R&D folks. We brain stormed and found some vague solutions. In the afternoon, we met up with business and we managed to push all the right buttoms , ask the real leading questions which miraculously shed light on some unforeseen issues - something about how we transport the products , store them, the chugs and halting stops and delays in a long, unpredictable supply chain...and viola we had a much smarter solution strategy than just "science" could suggest.

We dont know if it works but in some sense the skies cleared a bit.

I think over my career and life as a scientist engineer, I am always humbled by how simple solutions can be if we shed the flab and examine the lucid details and look at problems holistically - if we only shed the pomposity of jargon and hiding behind strained constructs.
Same true of life, I suspect, though I am much too warped in my cloudy veil of unawareness: If Life can be viewed as series of "quality" problems that can only be solved when one views these in a context. These can be overcome and a more chiselled chapter of life can reveal itself if we realise how astonishingly simple thought should be.