Questions with No Answers

I live-tweeted while watching the webcast of "Big Ideas, Busy People" on Friday, April 23. "Big Ideas, Busy People" was a brand new event during the Cambridge Science Festival where ten lecturers presented 5-minute presentations with a 5-minute question and answer session afterwards. It was a perfect event to live-tweet, as that helped me remember the many points made that evening. It was definitely easy to get lost in a concept, and then lose track of the presentation. I wanted to blog a post-festival write-up of this event right away, but then I attended "Lunch with a Laureate" on Monday, April 30th. Robert Merton, the 1997 Nobel Prize winner in Economics, was speaking.

So many ideas were thrown out during both events that I feel I might end up condensing too much if I try to write a post-festival blog post from my notes. My tweets are still available from "Big Ideas, Busy People," and the recorded event will soon be available at MIT World. Merton's talk should also be fed online. Since both events will be available electronically, it might be futile to try to summarize them. Thus, I decided it would be more useful to discuss asking questions at public events.

I noticed audience members seemed frustrated at either event if the speaker couldn't give a direct answer. With all the questions that the speakers were asked, I don't blame them for not answering overly-specific questions with little relevance to their research. For example, Merton's research, which won him the Nobel Prize, is largely related to options pricing modeling and derivatives. However, Merton was asked a very specific question by an audience member, "What do you think should be done with investing in China?" Merton prefaced his answer, "when you win the Nobel Prize, people expect you have answers on everything; I have ideas that doesn't mean they're right." This was a polite way for him to avoid saying too much, since his idea was just an opinion, not necessarily based on all the facts.

A similarly overly-specific question happened at "Big Idea, Busy People," when Professor Mark Hauser was unable to answer a question on whether or not Amy Bishop was evil. He did not even follow the court case, and he reminded the audience that he was not a clinician and thus unable to professionally make those judgments.

I was always taught and firmly believe there is no such thing as a stupid question. However, some questions are best not asked at a large events that are under time-constraints. At both events I attended, others were dying to pose questions that possibly could be answered.

This reminds me of a time, I attended a review session for a class, and the teacher responded to a question with the line, "this is not going to be tested." The student persisted with her question, even given the response, and the whole class stayed an extra hour as a result. We lost valuable time that could've been spent learning concepts of relevance to the test. The student's question was meant for Office Hours, where students can ask general questions one-on-one with the instructor, and it was not appropriate for a Review Session, where the sole purpose is to prepare for an upcoming test. If a question doesn't have relevance to the audience, especially in timed-events, it's better to move on. This may sound rude, but the intentions are not to offend the questioners. It's to give others the opportunity to ask their questions.

Good questions at these events are concise and to the point. As John Durant put it in the beginning of "Big Ideas, Busy People," questions should be twitter-style contributions (i.e. 140 characters) with a question mark at the end. Specific questions are harder to answer. The best indication your question is too specific is when you have to preface it with lengthy remarks so the audience can follow along. You can still ask questions relevant to your curiosity without telling the audience your life story and why you want to know the answer. If concise and relevant, the speaker should be able to answer the question quickly. An example of a good question happened at "Big Ideas, Busy People" when a ten-year old asked a question about string theory and 11 dimensions; Lisa Randall, the speaker, was able to answer the ten-year old's question in less than a minute because it was concise. Another way to ask good questions is when the professor hints he or she wants the question. Lisa Randall told the audience to ask her about Brain World, a universe that goes beyond 3-dimensions, and when someone did, she was thrilled to discuss it.

It's exciting to see esteemed professors give insightful lectures. This excitement comes with responsibility though as it's also important to be considerate of those around you when asking your questions. When there's only five-minutes to answer questions, you should really be asking questions that the professor can answer briefly and wants to answer.

"Big Ideas for Busy People" and "Lunch with a Laureate" are throught-provoking events where audience members ask many questions. Sometimes, questions with no answers are better to be debated amongst friends. After watching Mark Hauser speak on, "what is evil," I found myself asking my friends whether or not they thought bullies were evil after watching the Simpson's on a Sunday evening. This sparked a long, insightful discussion that a 10-minute limit would've drastically hindered. If you didn't get your question answered at the event, try asking your friends: you might end up surprised at how much you can learn from just talking to others.

Lunch With a Laureate: Dr. Richard Schrock

Environmental issues are very popular these days, and with good reason. I've heard many ideas suggesting how we can improve our environment or at least minimize the damage we do to it, ranging from driving more fuel efficient cars to using solar and wind powered energy. An equally important, though less publicized frontier for improving the environment, is in the production of chemicals. The chemical processes that produce fuel, drugs, and plastics also produce toxic waste. One way to improve the environment is to substitute a different chemical reaction which would produce the same end substance, but without the dangerous byproducts. Unfortunately, such "green" alternate reactions do not exist for many current manufacturing process, but scientists are hard at work to change that reality. In 2005, MIT’s Richard Schrock won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing one such new reaction.

Schrock co-developed a reaction in organic chemistry called olefin metathesis, which is more environmentally friendly and efficient than alternative methods in the production of drugs, fuels, and plastics. This reaction is often compared to a dance, where pairs of molecules switch partners and bond with other molecules. You can watch an animation of the chemical reaction here: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2005/animation.html. The dance analogy is so apt in describing Schrock's reaction that his Nobel Prize Diploma included a colorful painting of dancing people. You can view the diploma here: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2005/schrock-diploma.html

Schrock's reaction has been adopted by companies such as Shell Chemicals in the petroleum industry and Materia in the pharmaceutical industry. Shell Chemicals uses olefin metathesis to create chemicals which it advertises as being useful for cooling, lubrication, detergent, and waterproofing. Materia sells chemical compounds created via olefin metathesis called “pharmaceutical building blocks,” which can be used to develop new drugs. Olefin metathesis also benefits the oleochemical industry, which produces the vegetable oils and fats used in food, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. It is remarkable what a far-reaching influence a single chemical reaction can have with regard to industrial efficiency and environmental improvement.

You can meet Richard Schrock on Friday, April 30 from 12 Noon – 1 pm at the MIT Museum, where he caps a week-long “Lunch with a Laureate” discussion series. You can ask him questions about his research, the award of the Nobel Prize or the multiple applications and implications of olefin metathesis. Even (especially!) if you missed the others, be sure to catch this last “Lunch with a Laureate” in the 2010 Cambridge Science Festival!

Lunch With a Laureate: Dr. Jack Szostak

Nobel Prizes are sometimes awarded years after the research leading to them was conducted. Often the awarded scientist has moved on to other areas of research. Such is the case with Dr. Jack Szostak, a genetics professor at Harvard Medical School and at Massachusetts General Hospital, who received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2009 for research that he conducted in the 1980s. He won the Prize for his discovery of telomerase, an enzyme which is critical to the replication of DNA.

It turns out that DNA cannot be copied all the way to the end of the strand. So if we had nothing to protect the ends of our chromosomes, they would become smaller and smaller each time they replicate. Thankfully, shrinking chromosomes are avoided by a wonderful protective mechanism called a telomere. A telomere is a non-coding stretch of DNA at the end of a chromosome which protects the chromosome from losing important information each time it is copied. Because the telomere does not code essential information, it is okay that it is not fully replicated. However, if the telomeres were to get shorter and shorter each time DNA was copied, eventually the telomeres themselves would cease to exist and then there would be nothing protecting the important information from being deleted.

This is where Szostak's discovery, telomerase, comes into the picture. Telomerase maintains the length of the telomeres, ensuring that the protective cap at the end of our chromosomes remains strong. It turns out that telomerase is involved in the processes of aging and cancer. When the telomerase breaks down, genes are not copied well, causing aging. Hyperactive telomerase has been shown to be responsible for the rapidly multiplying cells of cancer. The discovery of telomerase is so important that it was even in my introductory biology textbook.

In the almost thirty years since Szostak made his discovery of telomerase, he has moved on to other areas of research. Currently, he is intrigued by how a bunch of chemicals turned into the beginning of life billions of years ago. His lab is developing an artificial cell that can undergo Darwinian evolution, modeling the early development of life. Szostak's model of the evolutionary cell consists of two self-replicating parts: the genetic material inside the cell, and the membrane enclosing the cell. The genetic material needs to allow the current cell to be copied, but it must also allow for variations to evolve into their own unique cells. This research is exciting, as it will allow us to better understand the early stages of life by seeing evolution in action. Szostak also hopes that his research on early cells will further our understanding of how cells work today.

You can meet Jack Szostak on Wednesday, April 28th at the MIT Museum as part of the weeklong Lunch With a Laureate series. He'll be available between 12 Noon and 1pm for an informal discussion about his life, his work, the Nobel Prize, and anything else you want to ask him. Bring your questions about telomerase, cells, aging, and the origin of life. Also, don't forget to bring your lunch!

Lunch With a Laureate: Dr. Eric Chivian

The rich intellectual environment of Cambridge has so many Nobel Laureates, and soon you'll have the unique opportunity to meet one (or more) of them! Next month, from Monday, April 26 through Friday, April 30, is the Cambridge Science Festival's week-long Lunch With a Laureate series, and the MIT Museum will host free daily lunchtime discussions with Nobel Laureates from 12-1 pm.
Thursday's lunch will be with Dr. Eric Chivian, a Harvard Medical School professor of psychiatry who co-founded the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985 for its efforts to prevent nuclear war. In addition to his attempts to prevent nuclear warfare, Chivian founded Harvard Medical School's Center for Health and the Global Environment to increase awareness of environmental change and its effects on people. The Center champions the idea that people are an essential part of the environment and that when we destroy our environment, we damage ourselves as well. Through these initiatives, Dr. Chivian continues to be active in promoting world causes 25 years after receipt of his Nobel Peace Prize.
If you attend the event, you'll be able to meet Dr. Chivian and ask him questions about his political position. You can ask him about the history of his organizations or about the factors that influenced his work. You can find out his opinion on current conflicts and the proper way to deal with the many humanitarian crises around the world, and you can get his opinion about health and public policy issues. You can also ask Dr. Chivian about how receiving the Nobel Prize changed his personal and professional life. Come armed with questions and comments and don't forget to bring your lunch!

The Basics:
Lunch With a Laureate: Eric Chivian
12-1 pm
Free
Thursday, April 29 2010
MIT Museum, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, first floor in the MIT 360 area