Seizing an Opportunity
Fabre’s experiment above is a classic example of the power of seizing a scientific opportunity. Often scientists undertake carefully planned experiments, but occasionally chance presents them with an opportunity. Such opportunities are most common in the more observational fields of research.
For example, whenever an earthquake happens, teams of seismologists rush to the scene with their seismometers, in order to monitor the aftershocks. When the 1971 San Fernando earthquake struck, I was at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, less than 100 miles away. I failed to seize the opportunity: I slept through the earthquake. My advisor, in contrast, ran into the bathroom and looked into the toilet. He saw that the water was sloshing north-south. Because he knew that active faults lie north but not south of San Diego, he inferred that a major earthquake had just struck north of us -- in the Los Angeles region.
A few hours later, he and several other geologists (myself included) were driving near San Fernando, looking for the fresh fault scarp. At least that is what we were trying to do; actually we were stuck in a canyon in what seemed to be the world’s largest traffic jam, while earthquakeloosened pebbles bounced down the hillsides and pelted the cars below. I remember wondering whether seizing this opportunity might be the dumbest idea I had ever gone along with.
Seizing an opportunity has sometimes been used as an excuse for skimming the cream and discarding the milk. In Egyptology, for example, the early approach was to grab the spectacular, expending no time for ‘details’ such as careful documentation of the less glamorous debris or postexcavation restoration of the site environment. Now archaeological work in Egypt is more careful throughout each project [Cowell, 1992], because an archaeological site offers no opportunity for a second chance or replicate study.
Supernova SN1987A was a successful example of scientists seizing an opportunity [Browne, 1992]. This explosion of a star occurred so close to earth (‘only’ 160,000 light-years away) that it was visible to the naked eye. It was the closest supernova in the last 400 years, an astounding chance to exploit modern astronomical technology to verify popular but untested models such as that of neutrino flux. The challenge was that study of SN1987A required a very fast scientific response, because the supernova peaked in brightness only three months after it was discovered. Both astronomers and funding agencies bypassed existing plans and procedures, achieving a sudden burst of observation, confirmation, and modification of theories.
Experimental Equipment
Equipment, not rare opportunities, is the mainstay of most experimental science. The applications, complexities, and costs of research apparatuses differ, yet several concerns and potential pitfalls are common to most equipment used in science.
Invention often follows technology. When new technology permits higher-resolution studies or a novel type of measurement, new perspectives often result. One should be alert for such techno-
