Research methodology

Dr Woon Kai Lin

ph7klw76@um.edu.my;

Room A320, Block A, Phys Dept; Tel: 03-79674287

Why you want to do research?

• REASONS you want to do research

List down 5 reasons why you want to do research

How does research feel like?

“A scientist in his laboratory is not a mere technician: he is

also a child confronting natural phenomena that impress him

as though they were fairy tales.‖-Marie Curie

Exciting

(EUREKA!)

Additive

Potential

to change

the world

FUN

Difficult

Frustrating RESEARCH

What is research?

• Research is the search for new knowledge

by scientific methods and/or finding new

applications with new found knowledge.

What is a scientific method?

Scientific method

Gathering

Data via experimentation

&

observation

Formulating

&

Hypothesize

&

testing

Logical

reasoning Law of nature

Interpreting

data

unbiased

Peer review of results

and methodology

Duplicable

predicting

Scientific Process

• Define the question

• Gather information and resources (observe)

• Form hypothesis

• Perform experiment and collect data

• Analyze data

• Interpret data and draw conclusions that serve as a starting point for new hypothesis

• Publish results

• Retest (frequently done by other scientists)

What is a good research?

IMPORTANT

PRACTICAL

RAMIFACTION

SIGNIFICANT

INTELLECTUAL

CONTENT

BEST

BUT

―Scientific discovery and scientific knowledge have been achieved only by those

who have gone in pursuit of it without any practical purpose whatsoever in view.‖-

Max Planck

I want to build a time-machine, it is

a ‗great research problem‘ but……

Research

Problem

A good research problem must have an ATTACK.

Without ATTACK, you will not able to solve the problem.

“The worthwhile problems are the ones you can really solve or help solve, the ones

you can really contribute something to”- Richard Feynman

How do find a good research

problem?

Good research

problem

RESEARCH

TALK TO

EXPERT

READ

ATTENDING

SEMINAR

This assumes that you have had a good starting point for your

research. This is often the responsibility of your advisor.

READ, READ, READ

READ SELECTIVELY, if not you will

experience information overload

How to read?

• Feature and review articles best place to start research on a new topics.

• Look at the papers published in high impact journals and highly cited papers.

• It is very important to have questions in your mind which you think reading journals would help you to find the answers or make the questions clearly.

Reading old books and papers

Graphite is a conductor

According to text book

Graphene

Recently…..

Graphene can be semiconductor too!!!!

If possible read latest books/journals

Highly cited papers

www.isiknowledge.com/ Search organic electronics and sorted by time cited

What is impact factor ?

• Citation of a given journals. A measure of

relative importance of the journal within its field.

All Journals

http://www.sciencegateway.org/rank/index.html

Material science

How to solve a research

problem?

• Expose and challenge hidden

assumption.

assumption

Simplify

conversation

It happens

too often

Everyone

should have

known

“Conclusion is as good as assumption used to reach there.”- Tom Chalko

misconception

Belief system

Case study: Expose and challenge

hidden assumptions

Fact

1. That the stars, sun, and planets appear to revolve

around the Earth each day.

2. Common sense perception that as the Earth is solid

and stable it is not moving—but is at rest

Earth is in the centre of the Universe

It is assumed and believed to be true because of it is

common sense.

Case study: Expose and challenge

hidden assumptions Galileo

Jupiter

The stars just appear and disappear from the background

with respect to Jupiter? Venus

Why Venus changes shape?

Case study: Expose and challenge

hidden assumptions Galileo

Challenge the view that the Earth is not the centre of the

Universe. The belief is so deeply rooted that no one believe

him at that time.

How to solve a research

problem?

• Treat inconsistencies as opportunities

INCONSISTENCY Instrumentation?

Misconception? Belief system?

Assumptions?

New law of physics?

You must have a good tolerance of the ambiguity

Case study: Treat inconsistencies

as opportunities

If the earth is not the center of the universe, the earth must be ‗flying‘ across space but why the earth is not moving and appear solid?

There is an inconsistency with Galileo

conclusion. Because of that lots of people think

that Galileo was incorrect.

Case study: Treat inconsistencies

as opportunities

• Newton noticed the inconsistencies and he

delved deeply in the matter.

And hence

Newton's law of universal gravitation

“Inspiration comes from the prepared mind”

How to solve a research

problem?

• Investigate anomalies

anomalies

New discovery?

Procedure error?

Instrumental

Error?

Great discovery often happened by accidents.

Don't kick it under the workbench.

Construct an example or experiment to emphasize

the anomaly and bring it into clear view

Accident?

Case study: Investigate anomalies

• In 1928 Fleming left the lid off the top of

one of his Petri dishes.

• He went for vacation

• He returned and notice…….

FUNGUS

(contamination)

Bacteria Fleming trying to

grow in agar dish

(Staphylococcus )

Case study: Investigate anomalies

• Lucky Fleming is observant enough that he didn‘t through away as he saw regions without Fungus!!

• Fleming concluded that the mould was releasing a substance that was repressing the growth of the bacteria

• He grew a pure culture and discovered that it was a Pencillium ( the most powerful antibiotic for curing serious disease)

How to solve a research

problem?

• Examine extreme cases.

You can learn a lot about a problem by pushing it to

extremes. Make numbers big, small, zero, equal to each

other, etc., to see what you can learn. These special cases

may expose what the solution looks like around the

edges.

Seek simplicity and distrust it

• The law of nature is governed by simple laws. Most amazing equations are often the simplest.

maFmcE 2

•But in REAL world, the law of physics are often

interacting on each other, a simplistic view often

doesn‘t describe the real word.

Making others research papers

obsolete

• ―The value of a paper is related to the number of

earlier papers that it renders obsolete‖- Hilbert

Displace previous work by introducing new points of view

,developing new techniques, refining thought processes and

etc

Build doors and bridges • The real value of an advance or solution is the

number of doors that it opens for future

research.

Developed in 1947 at Bell Labs by

Shockley, Brattain, and Bardeen

Modern

Electronics

and advanced

material and

methodology for

Semiconducting

research

Reinventing a better wheel

• Don‘t reinvent the wheel since it wastes time and resources.

• But if you found yourself doing something very similar to others, go beyond other researchers' work by putting your individual perspective, any specialized tools you develop along the way. Improve upon it.

―Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many

minds. I may be given credit for having blazed the trail, but when I look at the

subsequent developments I feel the credit is due to others rather than to myself.‖ –

Alexander Graham Bell

Case study: Reinventing a better

wheel

WIRELESS ENERGY TRANSFER

Tesla intended for the tower to demonstrate how the ionsphere could

be used to provide free electricity to everyone without the need for

power lines. Project not completed because of the lack of funding

1900s

Case study: Reinventing a better

wheel

Martin Soljačić from MIT,

along with a lab

demonstration of their

technology — used here to

light a 60 W bulb

Efficient transfer energy transfer over long distance in

the presence of extraneous environmental objects.

New discoveries are marginal at

first.

• The first light bulb only burned for a few

seconds. Some may conclude it is useless but

others might see it as a first step for light at

night.

• Realize that new ideas and results are often

weak at first, and they need to be nurtured and

defended in order to compete with established

techniques and vested interests. That takes

courage and perseverance

Studying examples

• There is virtually no textbook for a research

topics. You have only journal papers.

• Studying examples or research found within

your field would illuminate theories behind

provide guidance in developing new results.

Beware of what is uncertain

• Research is venturing into unknown and you will encounter things that you are not completely sure about including your supervisor.

• Try to find out more about the uncertain area by reading and/or experiments.

• Believe that something is true but it is, in fact, false (some published results may be wrong or you may have made an experimental, computational or logical error in your own work), then your thinking can be severely distorted.

Use your tools wisely

• Familiarize by reading manual of the equipment

and understand the limit and usefulness of

information that can be obtained.

• Use the correct tools to solve your problem.

• Using too powerful tools can make finding

solution becomes very difficult.

Develop necessary tools

• In the history of Science, developing of a new instrument has always resulted in new understanding of reality.

• Since the result you seek is novel and not yet known by others, you cannot expect to use readily available off-the-shelf equipment.

• Once you have those tools and techniques, then you are in a position to do things that no one else has done.

• Good tools can be extremely powerful

“Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so.”-Galileo Galilei

Case study: Develop necessary

tools Gas Discharge Visualisation (GDV)

Based on Kirlian Effect is a visible electro-

photonic glow of an object in response to

pulsed electrical field excitation.

In early days, Kirlian images were

recorded on photographic emulsion.

Since the sensitivity of a photographic

emulsion varies greatly with environmental

factors such as humidity, recordings were

not reproducible. As a result, some

scientists dismissed the Kirlian effect as

useless.

Case study: Develop necessary

tools Gas Discharge Visualisation (GDV)

Modern GDV instruments developed by Prof Korotkov use glass

electrodes and their recordings are highly reproducible in a wide range of

environmental conditions. Stimulated

electrophotonic GLOW

recorded seems to

contain information

about nearly every

major organ, function of

human organism and

human consciousness

Indirect instrumental detection of ultraweak, presumably electromagnetic radiation from organisms

Author(s): Berden, M; Jerman, I; Skarja, M

Source: ELECTRO- AND MAGNETOBIOLOGY Volume: 16 Issue: 3 Pages: 249-266 Published: 1997

Automated your measurement

system

• With the advent of computer control, why not

safe your painstaking measurement time by

automated your measurement. Very useful when

measurement are performed again and again.

Ask good questions

• The answers you get are determined and limited by the questions you asked.

• Do ask questions on questions you want to find out the answer

Be innovative and creative

• Most scientific discoveries and

technological advancement are fuelled by

innovative and creative thinking.

―I believe in intuition and inspiration. Imagination is more important than

knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the

entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly

speaking, a real factor in scientific research‖- Albert Einstein

Where do innovative and

creative ideas come from?

• Sudden spontaneous visions.

• Dreams

• Cross-pollination from different

fields .

―If you want to have good ideas you must have many ideas. Most of them

will be wrong, and what you have to learn is which ones to throw away.‖-

Linus Pauling

Case study: Cross-pollination from

different fields Optical tweezer

A focused laser beam to provide an attractive or repulsive force

depending on the refractive index mismatch to physically hold and

move microscopic dielectric objects.

Arthur Ashkin -optical trapping to trap atom

Steven Chu- laser cooling on atoms

Arthur Ashkin- move biological objects with optical trapping

-won Nobel prize

-won Nobel prize

Creating New Solutions

• Ordinary creativity consists of conscious activities,

represented as linear processes

• Extraordinary creativity involves unconscious mental

processes consisting in interactions between various

regions in the associative cortex bypassing

consciousness

Creating New Solutions

Get the problem reasonably clear and then refuse to look at

any answers until you've thought the problem through carefully how you

would do it, how you could slightly change the problem to be the correct

one.- Richard Hamming

How do I nurture my creativity?

• Exploring in depth a new area

• Be eclectic to exploit outside knowledge

• Think interconnectedness and holistically

• Know when to work more deeply or to move on

• Daily meditation

• Practicing day dreaming

• Make strange familiar and the familiar strange.

• Open minded

How do I nurture my creativity?

Recognize when you're mentally tired and rest

Inspiration often comes when you are relaxing or doing something else

How to become a good

researcher?

• Be technically excellent and work hard.

• Don't fear mistakes.

• Have a vision and defend it

• Don't get discouraged and (almost)

never give up.

• Learn from the past

• Be passion with your research

―I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step

forward‖- Thomas Edison

How to become a good

researcher?

• Think interconnectedness and

holistically

• Sell your ideas

• Develop ability to tolerate ambiguity

“If you believe too much you'll never notice the flaws; if you doubt too

much you won't get started. It requires a lovely balance.‖ -Richard

Hamming

Writing good paper

Characteristics of High Impact

paper • The work you have done something

important to advance towards a solution of

one of the big problem.

• You have solved the big problem in your

field.

• You have discovered something important.

Characteristics of Good paper

• Show deep fundamental understanding

(mechanism ,etc) of the research work.

• Show details of logical and coherent

explanation of the investigated

phenomena

• Show that what you have done is different

from other people.

Reasons for paper rejection

• Lack of mechanistic and fundamental study

• Lack of novelty. Your conclusion is very similar to

what it has been published previously even though

there are differences. It does not provide any

significant original contribution to the community

• Wrong format of submission.

• Your study is not complete. Ie, you need to have

more conclusive experiment to back your data up

and be more specific .

• There is a flaw in your experimental process and

your interpretation of your results.

Writing good paper

• Ensure novelty.

• Ensure it can provide significant original

contribution.

• Strong fundamental and mechanistic

study.

• Back up your data with experimental

evidences that reach your conclusion.

Writing good paper

• Make sure you are in continuous development of critical

thinking. An individual or group engaged in strong

critical thinking gives due consideration to:

• Evidence through observation

• Context

• Relevant criteria for making the judgment well

• Applicable methods or techniques for forming the

judgment

• Applicable theoretical constructs for understanding

the problem and the question at hand

Writing good paper

• Critical thinking employs not only logic but

broad intellectual criteria such as clarity,

credibility, accuracy, precision, relevance,

depth, breadth, significance, and fairness.

Scientific conduct Safety, Credibility, Integrity

Safety

• MSDS -material safety data sheet is a

form containing data regarding the

properties of a particular substance.

• Take precautious when dealing with

dangerous chemicals, high voltage , class

II,III, IV lasers and etc

• In doubt, ask your supervisor

Scientific Misconducts Intentional distortion of the research process by fabrication

of data, text, hypothesis, or methods from another researcher's

manuscript form or publication

Obfuscation - The Omission of critical data/ results

Fabrication – the actual making up of research data.

Falsification – manipulation of research data and processes in order to reflect

or prevent a certain result.

plagiarism – the act of taking credit for the work of another

self-plagiarism – or Multiple publication of the same content with different titles

and/or in different journals

the violation of ethical standards

stealing the work and results of others and publish them

Scientific Misconducts

“If you're doing an experiment, you should report everything that you think

might make it invalid — not only what you think is right about it... Details that

could throw doubt on your interpretation must be given, if you know them.‖-

Richard Feynman

PAUL M. GRANT

nature materials VOL1 2002 p1

Jan Hendrik Schon

Credibility :

soundness of logic, scientific process,

conform with common belief

Honest mistakes in judgment and errors in interpretation

made in good faith are not regarded as scientific misconduct

More advices on doing research • Science

• http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/

• Nature

http://www.nature.com/

- Advices by experienced researchers and Nobel laureates

can sometime be found on the above magazines

- You and your research by Dr Richard Hamming , a Bell lab

scientist,

- http://www.csee.usf.edu/~zheng/hamming-research.pdf

“If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.‖- Issac Newton

My 2cent

• Doing research is like cultivating thinking skills.

• You do experiments/ modeling to check what you think is correct/incorrect.

• You constantly improve your thinking skills. You gain new practical experience so that you have more means to verify your thinking/ideas.

Hope you are smarter after this lecture.

You will get significantly smarter at the end of your

research. Maybe smarter than me.

For those who are doing PhD, I am sure you

will get your Permanent Head Damage.

The END

HAVE FUN with your research

―All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child ―-

Marie Curie