"Research begins with believing!"
When I (the author) was a doctoral student, I participated in a research voyage of the Tansei-Maru (淡青丸) (then the University of Tokyo) and waited for the arrival of DSS in the Pacific Ocean. I wanted to investigate the mixing state of DSS particles and anthropogenic pollutants. My advisor, Dr. Uematsu, had a bold statement to make: "Whenever I get on a ship, something always happens." This "something" could be a natural phenomenon that I expected to observe or a sudden natural phenomenon that I did not predict. I have a vague recollection that during the voyage in which Dr. Uematsu participated, an eruption occurred on a volcanic island upwind of the ship, and a Siberian forest fire plume was captured in the Pacific Ocean. Although it is partly coincidental, Dr. Uematsu has a keen sense of smell to catch these phenomena and is agile enough to turn them into research results.
Now, as we were waiting for the DSS attack on the ship, the chemical weather forecasting system (CFORS;Research Institute for Applied Mechanics Kyushu University) revealed that a large-scale DSS was about to hit the area. Dr. Uematsu was very proud of his work, saying, "It's like I said!" "Touch the air outside, and you'll feel the roughness on your cheeks, Mr. Oki! The yellow dust is here. "I said calmly, "Sir, that's not yellow sand, it's just sea salt particles sticking to you and making you sticky. Or maybe you just haven't shaved your beard. "The doctor said, "Idiot! Research begins with believing!!" At that time, I felt uneasy as the one being instructed, "Oh, really, that's okay?" I remember feeling uneasy as the one being instructed.
More than 15 years have passed since then. I have come to realize that when conducting research with nature, the only way is to "believe" in something and continue observation. When I am observing, I do not always get results one after another, and in many cases, I do not get results until I have been doing it for more than a year. In such cases, we have no choice but to believe that the results will be excellent or as expected. However, more often than not, after a year or more has passed and the data is available, we are betrayed by what we believed. That is where we have to step up to the plate. We must think about the reasons for the betrayal and believe again that this is where the real research begins and leads to new discoveries.
Belief is important not only in research against nature, right? Everyone, even if you are betrayed, even if you are betrayed, don't be chastened, but believe. Everything begins with believing!! (Motto: Oki)
