Asking the Right Questions

It goes without saying that questions are the basis of scientific research. But all too often, especially in the PR department, we focus on the findings and forget about the process that led to those findings. So it was a refreshing change for us to put out an annual report on the theme of questions.

While the report takes as its premise the "big", even somewhat rhetorical questions, many of the featured scientists relate to the driving questions that keep them in the lab from morning to night.

In his message, Institute President Prof. Daniel Zajfman wrote:

Each new discovery leads to countless new questions...For us scientists, it simply means that we still know very little and there is still a lot to discover.

While some might find such a statement daunting, or even depressing, for Prof. Zajfman -- an astrophysicist -- it merely encapsulates the joy of scientific research.

Of course, asking the right questions is crucial. One of the ten short pieces in the report is even a sort of question within a question: What kinds of questions will quantum computers (should they ever be created) be able to answer? You could call it the science of asking questions.