Scientific Expertise

I am a social scientist. I study people and social processes. A geographer can be either a social or a natural scientist. Its pretty silly, actually, that the divide exists in the first place (but that is another topic that I am not getting into). But the people I work with at Northeast Agricultural University in Harbin are natural scientists. They study rice quality from a much different perspective. But I work with them in their lab because I am interested in learning about the scientific reasons that make rice quality. Of course, the scientific research is only one perspective of many that contribute to the story I am trying to uncover and tell. It is definitely the most complicated. They tell me all about starch content using fancy words I don't even understand in English, let alone Chinese.

I am interested in the scientific perspective of agricultural production for a number of reasons. Right now I am reading a biography of a man referred to as China's 'father of modern rice' for 'inventing' hybrid rice in the 1960s. His discoveries and scientific experiments came at a time when having scientific expertise was not necessarily the trait of a good Communist. Since the late 1970s when China embraced science and modernization, this man has been a hero (hence having a biography published). There are a lot of interesting connections between the broader political environment and the emphasis of scientific research. I think the emphasis on quality rice these days reflects a change in China, as it tries to produce higher quality goods rather than the cheap goods its known for.

I enjoy working with the agricultural scientists. But I am in this awkward position where I learn from them, but I am also analyzing what we talk about (granted I do this with everyone I talk to on the street who tells me something interesting about rice). I have to take what they tell me as both scientific expertise, but also as a perspective on why rice is considered quality. In other words, I am learning about rice expertise at the same time I am trying to analyze it within this social context.

A few nights ago, I randomly ended up at a dinner where I sat next to an American nutritional scientist from California who studies rice quality. I took every opportunity to ask him about what I was learning from my lab-mates (I don't know if 'mate' is the right word because I don't work in the lab, I just visit). He confirmed a lot of what I had learned and offered his own perspective on different things. I told him how glad I was to have him confirm things for me. But, even as I said it, I felt slightly uncomfortable, like I was reaching to an American to confirm what I had already learned from Chinese. I don't want to dis-qualify what the Chinese scientists are teaching me by asking Americans. But I also want to make sure that their perspective is in line with general ideas about rice quality from those who study similar topics.

In any case, scientific characteristics of 'quality rice' are complex (scientifically and politically) and it never hurts to get more, rather than less, confirmation.