Reflecting on the bug situation as a scientist

Research labs across the country and the globe had to halt their working due to the social distancing protocol prescribed to tackle the global pandemic of coronavirus (little bug) .A tiny little bug has disrupted the conventional way of conducting research and put things into perspective. Hope that you all are doing your part as sensible scientists that you are by adopting the appropriate measures. Now that we have been displaced from the comfort of our labs, it is time to address how this elephant in the room (ironically way tinier in size) has impacted our lives as researchers? I am going to reflect on this situation as a member of the science community and echo my thoughts and observations. Strap your buckles and join me in my ride.

The bug started sneaking into our world of research through cancellation of your anticipated conferences, extension of the grant proposal that you were cramming to finish, classifying your research as essential or perhaps not, and finally uprooted you from the physical office or laboratory spaces that you were often confined to. Uncertainties and disruption to normalcy are something that we as humans cannot grapple with easily. It has thrown us off that one experiment that was going well, the manuscript that was almost near its completion, the new trial that we wanted to conduct. The one question that was hinged on the minds of every researcher, be it graduate student researchers, post-docs, faculty or research scientists was or still is “When are we going back to business as usual?” No one has the answer to this question and having an unsolved question really bothers the minds of scientists.

The unsolved question, though has been a speed bump in continuing research efforts but definitely has not been a roadblock. Essential or not, researchers have taken it upon themselves to keep the scientific spark alive and joined the virtual bandwagon to continue the business. Shifting to a virtual platform has been a mammoth task and adapting to such a change in the midst of a global pandemic takes a lot of time and effort. This shift to online platforms in my opinion has two facets: breathing humans and non-living faility (equipment or space). Human resource is the most important in any type of research and spans across all fields (until we have them bots take us over). Research teams have moved online but that also implies lesser interactions, lesser face-time with that favorite colleague of yours and loss of that personal touch. You can no longer show up at your neighbor’s workspace at the drop of hat and start discussions- be it work or personal. But, you can still have those discussions online, it might not be the same but we need more social interaction especially in this world of physical distancing. It is going to take a lot of time and effort but everyone is on the same boat and you are not alone. Another thing that we all are worried about is our productivity as researchers and racing against time to finish the paper, dissertation or grant proposal. The bug has trapped us in a global pandemic, so it is okay (more than okay) to take the time to transition to the new world without worrying about productivity. Rephrasing the famous quote to suit the situation: ‘That one small step you take in this pandemic, is a giant leap for science’.

While research in all fields has a common thread of humans, either as individuals or in teams conducting their research, the same is not true for facilities. The pathways to transition to remote working for certain fields including computer science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, modeling, simulation, theoretical which do not rely on specialized equipment or lab spaces are different from the fields like manufacturing, processing, clinical trials. Echoing my own and peers’ perspectives who are heavily dependent on experimental lab space and specialized equipment to conduct research, a switch to the virtual world implies a pause on more than 60% of our endeavours and disruption of timelines and milestones. We, as experimentalists were totally unprepared to handle situations when the access to our critical spaces are curbed. Slowly but steadily amidst this chaos, we are coming up with creative alternatives to keep our science quest alive by resorting to writing papers, literature reviews, learning new techniques that we had put in the burner for long, planning those experiments for when we have finally taken down this bug.

A lesson for us as experimentalists, is to look into borrowing some components of research like automation, robotics, simulation or machine learning while we are planning our future experiments. This is the time to start those collaborations with the folks invested in robots, artificial intelligence to design virtual labs that we could work from the comfort of our homes. In the case of chemical synthesis of a novel material, imagine a virtual lab setting that allows one to choose the combination of chemicals and run the experiments to check if the conditions will work to give you the product you wanted. Such labs are definitely one of the directions that experimental scientists should actively pursue. Every grant proposal that is written from this date should account for alternate ways to conduct research in case of pandemic disruptions as these have occurred in the past and even with major technological advancements, none can assure that we will not face them in the future.

This has been a trying period where normalcy has been disrupted. Everyday we are exploring new ways to adapt to the pandemic at hand, transition to a virtual platform, managing individual and team goals, keeping our physical and mental well-being sound. The tiny bug has managed to turn our comfortable cocoon upside down but adapting to changing and unfavorable conditions is not new to the research community. We have been conducting experiments for long, have witnessed unfavorable outcomes more times than not but our resilience and passion to explore science till we achieve the most favorable outcome has been the greatest musing of researchers. Remember that we as the community of scientists are all in this together. Science is omnipresent and your research being classified non-essential today does not imply that your contribution is not important. Today, we need experts in biology, medicine, biomedical engineering at the forefront to tackle the crisis. Tomorrow, it could be climate change, mental health, sustainability, poverty that need collective expertise of engineers, physicists, chemists, psychologists and to be fair, curious scientists in general. The silver lining to this grey cloud is that it has opened the avenue for all scientists, irrespective of your fields, to face the mirror, self-reflect on the circumstance and prepare to establish a new normalcy.

Dear scientific community, that was my take on the situation as a scientist (maybe, some of you felt it as a rant, but Comm’on, I blame it on the bug). Before signing off, I encourage you all to self-reflect on this situation and poke that intelligent brain of yours with few questions: What will you adopt and implement from the bug situation when you get back to research in the new normal? How are you going to prepare yourselves and the scientific community to tackle tiny bugs or maybe even elephants in the future?