The Research Gaps You Never Knew Existed.
“To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.” -Albert Einstein
When I think of examples of research gaps, I think of scientific articles with words and graphs packed so densely into each page that you have to zoom in 150% just to read all the equally-dense sentences.
I imagine the word “Discussion”, which is of course preceded by “Results”, which is preceded by “Methods” (which- and I’m not proud of it- I often skip if I can afford to).
Research gaps make me think of academia.
They make me think of big bookshelves, and abstract, open-ended questions.
Recently, however, they became very real for me.
The Research Gap Example I Keep Going Back To.
A New Adventure.
After many months of toiling, doubting, and reading through emails in which people I didn’t know but wanted to impress regretted-to-inform-me, I got the surreal news that I had been accepted for a fully-funded research fellowship.
It aligned with my interests so perfectly that it was all I could do to keep from replying back to confirm my acceptance in all caps and seventeen exclamation points.
Come week one, I was mostly just nervous that I would walk into the lab, and with one look, everyone would look at me like I had the word ‘fraud’ tattooed to my forehead.
If anyone dared invoke the likes of Imposter Syndrome, I would quickly reply, “Yes, but that’s for people who aren’t imposters, not for people who are.”
So mainly, I walked into that first meeting with my grad student and faculty mentors with the hope that they saw something in me that I hadn’t yet realized.
An internship that combines public health and geochemistry to analyze water quality, I shouldn’t have been surprised by the blending of microbiology and chemical analysis, but I was.
Apparently, I learned, my grad mentor was doing something pretty unique in her work. A biology undergrad pursuing a chemistry-heavy Master’s degree, she was able to leverage what she knew about microbes to reinforce the chemical findings in our water samples.
Then, using both the chemical and microbial “narratives”, we could piece together the larger “story” of river water in the study and all the things happening to it.
It was, in a word, I thought it was genius.
Dissecting The Genius
Since that fateful first meeting, marked by purple whiteboard markers and quickly-drawn diagrams, I have thought a lot about what made this moment so magical for me.
Was it the realization that maybe I could be of value here?
Could it be that I was reassured that maybe I wasn’t a complete fraud after all?
Perhaps I liked the thought that you don’t have to put all your eggs in one basket to be of value in the world.
I wonder if maybe, it just boils down to the realization that the process of discovery requires unlikely combinations almost as much as it requires niche-specific depth.
Finding The Research Gaps You Took For Granted.
“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.” - Charles R. Swindoll
The trouble is, you are tragically blind to the weird and wonderful combinations you have made in your own life already.
To help you unmask them, I came up with some questions I like to ask myself when I start to feel a little too…normal.
#1: In a room full of people also in your [field/culture/role], how does your particular [knowledge/experience/approach] differ?
When I was going through high school, I studied in England, and one of the biggest aspects of my experience that stood out to me was that I was American.
Culturally, it lended my experience a flavor that only I could provide.
Similarly, my grad mentor came from a biology background and could speak uniquely to her biological knowledge when in a room full of chemists.
#2: What questions do you ask that make you feel stupid?
“Problems are only opportunities with thorns on them.” -Hugh Miller
Ah, the trials and tribulations of the stupid question stigma.
Let’s do us all a favor and banish it once and for all.
Because stupid questions are their own kind of information. They tell us what we take for granted, and what we take for granted represents a blind spot in our ability to problem-solve.
#3: What are the necessary rules versus the imagined rules?
This one is about distinguishing between the “this is just how we’ve always done it” rules, and the “physical law by which the universe operates” rules.
Sometimes, being in a field for too long prevents you from making that distinction, and only with a newcomer’s eyes can you break through the blindness into the blinding new possibilities ahead.
Jack of all trades.
“Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.” - Arthur Schopenhauer
People often misquote the phrase “jack of all trades” as a pejorative for those who have too many interests.
Unbeknownst to them, the full version of the quote from William Shakespeare actually suggests the exact opposite:
“A jack of all trades is a master of none, but often times better than a master of one.”
The moral of the story, in my book, is to keep exploring.
Keep opening books that are outside your area of expertise.
Ask questions like a beginner. Offer up even the stupid, obvious ideas.
Then, when you do stumble on a research gap, you won’t help but add some novel spark of genius.
Thought to Action
#1: Run a Passion Experiment: Choose one small action that tests a curiosity (not a career decision). Give it a deadline.
#2: Separate Skill From Identity: You don’t need to be “good” at something for it to matter to you.
#3: Build a ‘Slow Stack’: Keep one long, complex book by your bed and promise it five pages a day—no summaries, no speed. Just sustained attention.
#4: Reflect in Reverse: Once a week, ask: “What did I not do because I underestimated myself?”—then do one of those things, badly but bravely.
#5: Use Tech Intentionally: Schedule a daily “digital audit”—10 minutes to check what tools you actually use to create versus to consume. (See this guide to mindful tech habits).
Sources
No external sources were used for this post.
AI Statement
Where was AI used?
SEO keyword research & optimization: This is the boring bit that has to do with aligning what I write with what search engines will put at the top of their pages. I let AI do it so I can focus on being a better writer.
Where was AI not used?
Image generation: A human being took and selected every photo used in this post.
In any writing, at any point: A human being wrote this post with her heart and brain, not her LLM friends.
Selecting ‘Thought to Action’ items: These have been remixed from past posts with related themes.