Ask whatever question you like

Every year, new graduates and project students make an appearance in the lab. Acquiring the skills necessary to become a researcher can be a long and painful process, and many of the hints that would help relieve the pain are not written in books. For instance, you can’t be a researcher without being able to ask questions, but this doesn’t come naturally to everyone. Once you get the knack, however, it’s so easy you can do it in your sleep. Once, I was giving a talk at a meeting in central Europe. It was the session after lunch, during which it’s always tough to keep your audience awake. You can try being very loud, making lots of jokes, leaving the room bright while showing slides, or even presenting fascinating data — though this last is the hardest to do. The professor who had invited me started dozing off right after introducing me, and eventually he was sound asleep, rocking his head back and forth. When I finished, the hand-clapping and the sudden light woke him, and after a moment of silence he opened his eyes, hastily composed himself and asked: “Well, so what is your conclusion here?” It was immature of me but I couldn’t help replying “Exactly as I said at the end of my talk.” Being more experienced than me, he wasn’t embarrassed. “Oh, was that so? OK, let’s have a lively discussion about this conclusion now,” he said as he turned to the audience. If you are on the committee for something like a thesis defence, you are obliged to ask questions. What if you’ve fallen asleep in occasions like that? One of my American friends always asks “What’s the effect of magnesium in your experiment?” I am usually so worried that I never go to sleep before I have thought of at least one question. Someone I know once slept through an entire talk given by a post-doc, but woke up to hear the discussion afterwards. As he listened, he gradually became interested, and as the post-doc was about to leave he grabbed him and said, “Come to my office, I want you to repeat your talk exactly as you gave it, from the beginning.” With a good audience, it’s not that unusual for the discussions to be more interesting than the talk itself. A good, original question also makes a lasting impression of your intelligence on the speaker.