I start a lot of presentations about science with a
tree
.
With its branches being areas of knowledge, and what we do as a PhD the tips of the branches. Other people I think talk about how knowledge moves from these thick trucks of solidified stuff, and built on the backs of giants. and out to the PhD students who try to make sense of what has come before.
Another way to think about it, and maybe more fun, is that the tree is poking into the unknown, and its more our job to really explore that. Not concerning ourselves with the base of knowledge more sifting through the dark around the tree looking for other branches.
Maybe the tree metaphor has gone on for too long.
But how we think about ideas and finding new ideas is really important.
It seems most important to ask good questions and look in interesting places. Or less explored places.
Rather than adding to what we may already know. Because sometimes what we know was wrong all along.
This is hard though because people don't fund so much what we don't know, they want measurable achievable outcomes.
We never know anything forever.