Ask a scientist
“What is the biggest misconception about being a scientist?”
Sander Hitzig
The biggest misconception is that doing research means being stuck in a lab and not having any direct ties towards improving patient care. In reality, issues that affect patients’ health and wellbeing are what drive my research. I work with patients, clinicians and other key decision-makers on finding ways research can help describe problems patients are dealing with, and what can be done to solve those problems. For example, I have worked with patients to better understand what it means to live with pain, and have used that information to help clinicians develop guidelines and interventions to help people better manage their pain.
Being in research to me means getting good evidence into the right hands so that it can support new ways to help people recover and be able to return to their lives. So if you have problem, talk to a scientist; they might be able to help.
Hitzig is a scientist in Evaluative Clinical Sciences and the St. John's Rehab Research Program at SRI. This year, he received a one-year patient-oriented rehabilitation research collaboration grant worth $20,000 from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. He will conduct focus groups with rehab patients on issues affecting their health and wellbeing to inform a list of patient priorities.
Bradley MacIntosh
When I became an SRI scientist I read Advice for a Young Investigator by the famous neuroscientist Ramón y Cajal. The book had inspiring words on the beauty and romance of science. It also had a lot on the need for rigorous, precise measurements. It was as if Cajal was wagging his finger at me reminding me to be careful, do good work.
One of the biggest misconceptions about being a scientist is that we spend our time doing rote and monotonous work, hiding out in our lab. Science is creative and hard. Doing something wrong can have repercussions. Like a gardener tending to their seedlings, however, a scientist’s thrill is watching how careful work starts to bear fruit. The work invites intrigue from onlookers. A scientist can create something that others take up and scrutinize with their own lens and bias. And the conversation continues.
MacIntosh is a scientist in Physical Sciences and the Hurvitz Brain Sciences Research Program at SRI. As a neuroimaging scientist, he uses vascular imaging techniques to study brain function and physiology. Last year, he was awarded $140,000 over five years from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. He is studying the effects of exercise on the brain and people's ability to perform difficult mental tasks.
Bev Orser
The biggest misconception about being a scientist relates to the “pebble in the shoe” effect. Most folks think that the big breakthroughs come from doggedly pursuing a favorite hypothesis and amassing loads of data to show that your idea is correct.
However, the big breakthroughs are more likely to come when you pay close attention to your data, watching for a signal or something that doesn’t fit your hypothesis. Initially, these data are incredibly irritating, but such sentinel results are ignored at your peril. They should make you stop and re-examine the problem. Eventually, they may lead you in an entirely new, previously unimagined, but wonderfully fruitful direction.
Orser is an affiliate scientist in Biological Sciences and the Hurvitz Brain Sciences Research Program at SRI, and an anesthesiologist at Sunnybrook. She holds the Canada Research Chair in Anesthesia. This year, she was appointed chair of the department of anesthesia at the University of Toronto. Her five-year term begins July 1, 2017. She also was awarded the 2017 Gold Medal from the Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society. Her research seeks to understand how general anesthetics work at a fundamental level.
Photos: Eleni Kanavas (left), Doug Nicholson (right) and Nation Wong (centre)
