ABSTRACT
Science begins with the individual investigator, who makes observations and designs and interprets experiments. The investigator brings the results to the attention of his/her scientific peer group. A group of individuals engaged in some activity may have exclusive beliefs about the meaning and proper performance of their activity, and these beliefs may be regarded as absolute truths. Such exclusivity is often a characteristic of religious and political groups. Scientific groups are variable in size and function, and an individual investigator can be a member of many different groups. Graduate programs usually are composed of both senior and junior faculty members. The senior faculty members, through their previous participation, represent the prevailing thought style of the program. Most graduate students begin their graduate training by taking one or several general survey courses. The goal of the graduate program is to transmit to students the observations, hypotheses, and problems that are currently accepted by the thought collective of the field-in-general.
