All the easy research has been done before.

So you’re underwater in Palau.

A hammer in one hand, a screwdriver in the other

SCUBA regulator in your mouth, blowing bubbles to the surface

As you assess your next target:

A chunk of coral, about 5 cm by 6 cm, narrow on one end so it looks like a turkey leg. A little juvenile, maybe a year old.

And you need to chip off a piece of it.

But you know that as soon as you place the screwdriver against its surface and tap the back with the hammer, you’ll drive that little coral baby into the sand.

“Why can’t I just sample the adult corals?” you ask yourself. “That would be so much easier!”

But adults of this species have been sampled before.

All the easy research has been done before.

Or maybe you’re in the Arctic.

It’s winter, so it’s dark 24/7, and the wind makes you feel like there’s little ice bullets attacking your face every time you go outside.

And you have to go out on a boat to collect your samples

Except the boat’s range is restricted by sea ice and you have to plan your route carefully to make sure you don’t destroy the boat or get trapped between two floes and frozen in

So you don your special suit, a tough waterproof rubber that’s as uncomfortable as anything but designed to save your life

And load your gear in the ice-bullet breeze

And ask yourself “Why can’t I just collect my samples in the summer? That would be so much easier.”

But honey, people have been researching things that happen in the summer for years.

Decades.

Working in summer is easy.

And all the easy research has been done before.

You’re out on a ship – a big one, the kind with 50 people on board

And you’re prepping your gear for deployment in the deep sea.

It’s 4 km down to the muddy seafloor, and at that depth, your precious electronics have to withstand 400 atmospheres of pressure.

So you use titanium housings and clean, well-greased O-rings

Which you check and double-check and triple-check

Because one speck of dust could torpedo your experiment and cost thousands of dollars in repairs.

“Why can’t I just make these measurements at shallower depth?” you wonder.

“Why can’t I just work on the continental shelf or off the dock or in a pond?”
Because that’s been done before.

We already know a lot about those environments

But we don’t know a lot about the deep sea.

All the easy research has been done before.

So you pack your bags and ship your samples and take yourself back home.

And you sit down in your lab to process what you’ve collected.

You’ve been dying to try out this new technique.

You’re going to analyze your data in a way that’s never been done before –

Except that’s just the problem –

All the easy research has been done before.

You mess with it and troubleshoot it and run into brick wall after brick wall

Until you’re ready to shout into the void for frustration:

“Why can’t I just use the old techniques?!”

“Why can’t I just describe what I see? Why do I have to use this ridiculous model? Why can’t I do what has been done before?”

My friend, all the easy research has been done before.

But then one day

After the diving and the sweating and the freezing and the boats and the ships and the heavy, heavy gear

After the hair-pulling and exasperating and long, long nights

It works.

And you find it –

Something that has never been found before.

Your soul soars and you write your paper

And you are reminded why you chose this field

Because science happens in small steps but every once in a while

You will do something that has never

Ever

Been done before.