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The process of scientific discovery is fraught with debate: hypotheses are tested, revised and then tested again; methods are questioned, findings contradicted. For most university researchers, this intense level of inquiry is welcome. Professional scientists are confident that careful observation, experimentation and accumulation of data will eventually produce a consensus view, and that this view will advance our understanding. But what happens when consensus never comes? Our cover story in this edition of Illumination recounts just such an instance. For more than 50 years, experts have vehemently disagreed about one of the most important questions in North American anthropology: Do the Olmec deserve credit for the flowering of civilization that began in Mesoamerica some 3,000 years ago? Or should credit be shared among a wider group of the region's ancient inhabitants? Like the Olmec wrestler depicted on our cover, protagonists on each side are determined to make their case. At times the debate has been vitriolic. Scholars have staked their professional reputations on the outcome. Now, thanks to an inquisitive trio of scientists working with the MU Research Reactor, evidence has emerged to clarify key issues. "The scientific mind," wrote the famed anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, "does not so much provide the right answers as ask the right questions." At MU, asking the right questions has long paved the way for important results -- and not just in Olmec-related arguments. In this issue, for example, you will meet a plant scientist who wonders whether better oil seeds can reduce our nation's dependence on fossil fuels; you'll travel to rural clinics where medical students are questioning why big-time doctors can't practice in small towns; and you'll learn how a scholar's dogged pursuit of a playwright's correspondence has led the literary world to rethink what it thought it knew about America's greatest dramatist. These and hundreds of other MU scientists and scholars know that uncertainty is simply an invitation to insight. I hope this edition of Illumination will help you recognize the value of their efforts, and perhaps stir your own curiosity as well.
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To request an issue or subscribe to Illumination, contact us at Illumination, Office of Research, 205 Jesse Hall, Columbia MO 65211. |
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Wrestling with Uncertainty 