Alexi Marinaki

‘According to peer-reviewed scientific research’ is a phrase often used on social media and in conversation. This statement is used to prove credibility in an instant. The peer-review process is extensive, and so is the scientific research that pre-empts it. To be associated with such a phrase, and the credibility that comes with it, is something I think most future scientists strive for. 

I am far from a master of the scientific method—in fact, the irony that a master’s student is writing this is not lost on me. However, what I want to highlight about leveraging your strengths lies in the first stage of the scientific method. Asking questions, or framing your problem statement, which is where the research begins. In the case of my honours project, this question was where the moisture that results in snowfall in Lesotho comes. With a humanities background, and a severe lack of a scientific and mathematic skillset, this was daunting. 

While the research question was clear, my mind quickly jumped to asking what I can and cannot do. What I could not do at first was any sort of meaningful statistical analysis. More importantly, and less immediately obvious to me, was that I did not know how to read. Of course I am capable of reading words on a page, but I could barely understand anything that I was reading. This academic fight or flight situation left me with no choice but to play to my strengths to ensure I could produce something of some value. The strength in question, after many hours of internal deliberation, was simple. It is something that I had coded into me from the beginning of my educational career, naïve persistence. 

Fortunately, if you have ever tried to learn a new language or a musical instrument, you will already understand this concept. The naïve persistence to accomplish the most basic tasks. This could be introducing yourself in a foreign language, only to continue the rest of your conversation in your native language. The small step still fills you with immense pride to graduate to the next step. This is how I felt as I completed my honours project. It began with a simple scroll through Instagram —something we all do while lazing on the couch. For me, this was the first step in identifying a list of snow events in Lesotho. Somehow, before I knew it, that afternoon scrolling through Instagram evolved into a detailed set of maps and figures revealing the sources of snowfall in Lesotho. 

While your set of strengths may be more innately aligned to the field of science, such as climate science where I now find myself, it is important to remember that effective and curiously questioning was the start of every great scientific discovery. Here, I am reminded of a conversation I once had with a fellow student in first year where we both had a good chuckle imagining what the first person who saw a giraffe must have thought about this strange animal. While this was seemingly unimportant and two students clearly wasting time between lectures, the naïve questioning that encompasses that thinking has allowed me the freedom to search for solutions to problems that I encounter. 

I would like to conclude by asking you a question. Can you imagine that a student who asks silly questions about giraffes could be considered as a published scientist? No, neither could I at first. Yet, that terrifying honours project has resulted in my first scientific publication in a peer reviewed academic journal. That naïve persistence really paid off.