when agricultural scientist meet to determine the methodology of prioritization of mega research programes, which they expect donors to support, why they feel shy of dealing with uncertainties more pragmatically. Why do we assure more definite resulst than what are possible?
why do we argue that we have the mdoels which predict hwo research will imapct the people and society must trust them, when they havenot much to show for 40 percent of their budget they spent in Africa?
May be they are not willing to embrace deviant research, see a note in New Scientist.
The word: Deviant research
* 22 September 2007
*
* Related Articles
* Feature: Local heroes
<http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg17423415.300>
* 4 May 2002
* Search New Scientist <http://www.newscientist.com/search.ns>
* Contact us <http://www.newscientist.com/contact.ns?recipient=dn>
Web Links
* Video: Pedal-powered washing machine
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxryeNycJX0&feature=RecentlyWatched&page>
* Honey Bee network <http://www.sristi.org/honeybee.html>
* Shodh Yatra
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6279929.stm>
<http://adserver.adtech.de/?adlink%7C2.0%7C289%7C113640%7C1%7C170%7CADTECH;grp=055818210;loc=300;>
WHAT do a bicycle that goes faster over bumps, a lever that allows car
pedals to be operated by hand and a pedal-powered washing machine have
in common?
They are all examples of “deviant research”, so called because they were
developed by amateurs trying to solve problems that dog their daily
lives, rather than to make money. A pedal-powered washing machine
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxryeNycJX0&feature=RecentlyWatched&page>,
for example, was invented by Remya Jose (pictured), who as a 14-year-old
schoolgirl from the Malappuram district of Kerala in south India found
that the time it took to wash clothes by hand was getting in the way of
her studies.
Such grassroots innovations are driven by adversity, so they are often
created by people who are prevented by problems of language, literacy or
geography from getting their inventions into the hands of others who
might have a use for them. As if these weren\’t obstacle enough, deviant
researchers risk being ridiculed by their own communities for daring to
try to banish their problems in this way, rather than putting up with
them like everyone else.
“People risk being ridiculed for their innovative approach”
One effort to overcome those barriers and oil the wheels of deviant R&D
is the Honey Bee Network <http://www.sristi.org/honeybee.html>, set up
almost 20 years ago by Anil Gupta of the Indian Institute of Management
in Ahmedabad. It was Gupta who coined the term “deviant research”. The
network uses community organisations, local-language newspapers,
multimedia presentations and other channels to find deviant researchers.
It then connects them with each other and to scientists and other
academics, who can test the inventions and provide help with patents and
business plans.
The Honey Bee Network is now the repository for more than 10,000
inventions. One example is a bike that goes faster when ridden on bumpy
roads, developed by Kanak Das, who lives in an isolated part of
north-east India. Energy from the shock absorbers is used either to help
turn the pedals via a set of springs or, in Das\’s latest prototype, to
charge batteries, creating an electric bike.
The Honey Bee network also talent-spots inventors during its
twice-yearly Shodh Yatra (Sanskrit for “walk to find knowledge”). These
week-long treks take Gupta and a crew of facilitators through remote
regions of India at a pace slow enough to stop, talk and find out who
has invented what. The last one, through the Anantnag district of
Kashmir, found Abdul Rashid Dar, inventor of a lever that locks onto a
car\’s clutch pedal, allowing people with limited use of their legs to
operate it by hand.
Now Gupta wants to dig out deviant researchers in the industrialised
world. With that in mind, the 20th Shodh Yatra, the first outside of
India, is being planned to start near Newcastle in north-east England as
early as next month.
From issue 2622 of New Scientist magazine, 22 September 2007, page 56
—
Anil K Gupta
