How to ask questions (in 10 easy steps)

In learning to navigate a particular field of science, students are continually fed large chunks of information, more or less organized, and asked to solve problems, but little or no time is spent learning how to ask questions, at least in any formal way. This may just be a pedagogical oversight, but I suspect it reflects the fact that questioning is an inherently subversive activity and deeply resented in most societies, especially by the elites as they have the most to lose if things get out of hand. In any event, I have compiled my own idiosyncratic list of rules to live by and hope others may join in. 1. “Don’t follow leaders (watch the parking meters)” — Bob Dylan The ‘leaders’ in any given field have their own agendas and blindspots. There are also invariably crowds of people following them and the competition is fierce. At the same time you don’t have all day to get going on developing alternatives (see above ‘parking meters’). 2. Don’t follow the crowd. While most people and sheep are more comfortable in herds, in science it is very difficult to do anything interesting when you’re trampling over the same ground as everyone else. Best to formulate an unique question and/or approach. 3. Don’t ask ‘What’s the next step?’, ask ‘What’s missing from this picture?’ The next step is already being done by the leaders and their followers, so unless things have ground to a halt over some technicality (as they frequently do) you’re better off working on something completely different. 4. “To make important discoveries, ask important questions” — Peter Medawar This means doing your homework and really finding holes in dogma or in The Big Picture that need attention. 5. “Leave your stepping stones behind, you’d better use your sense. Forget what you have gathered from coincidence.” — Bob Dylan Generals fight the last war, scientists recycle the last ‘big’ experiment. When I was a student, the cloning of antibody genes answered many of the outstanding questions in that field, leading some to think that cloning any gene would answer all the questions associated with that protein.