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XXXXXX Academic Test Article Review 28 December, 2010

There is No Hope of Doing Perfect Research (Griffiths, 1998, P97). Do You Agree?
I disagree!! There is hope of a perfect research and it has been done in the past and it is being done now. Most of the readers would disagree with this shocking claim but it is quite simple to understand. The question lies in the definition of perfect research. How do we define this term? Research means the search for knowledge and establishing contemporary facts. It is an ongoing process. But a research on any subject that has no rival research or a fact that could beat it is a perfect research. Let me elaborate, few centuries ago certain diseases like cholera, malaria, typhoid and small pox were considered incurable. The researches had been done at that time. And no one could argue over the researches that they were insufficient or imperfect. They were complete in all respects. The only missing piece was time. It was not time to discover the cure for those diseases. We can relate the same case with the present. The HIV and AIDS are still incurable. Should we say that the researches done on these subjects are not perfect? certainly not! The research is up to the mark, acceptable or perfect. Hopefully in the coming years, the human race will come up with a definite cure for HIV. To make things simpler to understand, we should use the term transitional research. A striking example of transitional research is on the fruits and vegetables. Every day scientists discover new food constituents in these things. Even a common person observes that every week he or she

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hears some anchorperson on TV telling the audience that some particular fruit also cures a particular disease or according to the latest research it is helpful in burning cholesterol or it is good for eye sight etc. And I would like to ask those people a question, who agree with the subject that there is no hope for perfect research. Is Newtons law of action and reaction imperfect? They should think twice if their answer is yes, because the whole scientific structure will collapse at that answer. All the inventions that we see around us are based on the scientific researches, or let me rephrase, perfect researches. All the calculations, equations and the variables, if they were not perfect, how could we possibly be witnessing the marvels of mankind? We see the Eifel Tower, we see the bullet train, we see cancer being cured, we see small pox being cured, we see submarines, we see monstrous weapons and Tanks, how can they possibly dazzle us without the perfect research? We researched on food preferences of our citizens during our school days. We came up with various statistics and numbers. We used different calculation methods to set a Marketing strategy. Our research was based on firsthand experience. Our aim was to open a food business and we developed a business model for it. We even got it approved from our senior management and college staff. And we started selling food items in the Market. Did we succeed? No, it didnt work out as planned. Our theoretical work was flawless. We even took in the variable change factor but it didnt work out. The point is, our research work was still perfect. As no professor of our business school was able to reject or modify our business plan. In the original argument by Griffith that Im referring to, he gave an example of abacus. He says that if it had been a perfect research, we wouldnt have been able to develop a computer

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from it. Im not disagreeing with the idea. Im not disregarding the original argument. Probably Im saying the same thing but in different words. Let me explain. The abacus was developed before 1387 AD (Wikipedia.org) as a result of perfect research as there was no substitute available for it at that time. As the time passed, Mathematics and study of electricity flourished. New theories and methodologies were introduced. Those developments lead to the invention of computers. Now was that not perfect research? Sure it was. So lets summarize, the abacus was invented as a result of perfect research A and the computers were invented as a result of perfect research B, and the research continues. Every day we see new models of computers and upgraded software and tons of gadgets. And the research is still in progress. Lets take a harsher stance. For the so called imperfect research, all the values, like the gravitational constant g = 9.8m/second square and the speed of light which is 300,000,000 meters per second are perfect. For the people who want to argue about the exceptions in it, let me quote another example, the value of pie which is equal to 22/7, scientists have tried to calculate the value but it goes on and on, now this looks a very striking example of imperfect research but there is no substitute of it. There is no calculator or computer in the world that can beat it or could give a precise value of the mathematical pie. So again we conclude that the value of pie is perfect as there is no better value or substitute available to it other than 3.14159.. There is always hope of doing perfect research. I would like to quote an astounding example from my own research from the school days. We were researching the stock recommendations of silver and oil. All the renowned index indicators like Morgan & Stanley, S & P 500 and the likes were giving a buy recommendation right before the 2008 oil crisis (Tom Whipple, The Peak Oil Crisis, The Silly Season Is Upon Us) . It can be traced back to all the well known newspapers. We did our own research on it and found a major flaw in the recommendations of well respected

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index rating companies. We saw the humongous slump coming. Our rating was that the oil price per barrel would drop to below $50 and the index raters were suggesting a buy for it. Of course we couldnt challenge them face to face, what we did was, we took a short position on our own investment stocks and we benefitted. The price of oil plummeted to $43 per barrel. We made a hefty profit of 130%. The point of explaining this firsthand experience is that our research was perfect and theirs wasnt. Every day a perfect research conclusion is being created, modified or rejected. The research process is like a black hole that is never ending. The word research is a verb. It is happening. If it stops then it would become an imperfect research. May be one day a research would come out that would reject the Newtons laws of physics, rule out the gravitational law or even mock Einsteins theory of relativity. Then that research will be crowned as the perfect research till a better one comes along.

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Works Cited 2000s Energy Crisis. Wikipedia. 2010. Web. 27 December 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Oil_Crisis>. Whipple, Tom. The Peak Oil Crisis, The Silly Season Is Upon Us. Falls Church News-Press 17apr2008. Web. 27 December 2010. <http://www.mindfully.org/Energy/2008/Peak-OilCrisis17apr08.htm>.