You can take the girl out of the lab …

It’s time for another spin of the “Ask a ScienceBlogger” wheel! The question this time is:

Assuming that time and money were not obstacles, what area of scientific research, outside of your own discipline, would you most like to explore? Why?

You may recall that I chose to leave chemistry for a career as a philosopher of science. Near the end of my time in chemistry, I was pretty anxious to leave the lab behind — preparing solutions, calibrating (and repairing) pumps, washing glassware, etc. So I’m actually a little surprised at my own answers to the questions, since I find myself drawn back to experimentation.

Here are the first three projects that popped into my head upon reading the questions:

1. Study the effects of the geometry of the copper stills on the flavor of the whisky produced with them.
2. Work out the master algorithm (relating chocolate to sugar to flour proportions, pan dimensions, etc.) for perfectly specified brownies (baker’s choice along the cakey-chewy axis).
3. Study effects of various combinations of soil amendments, double-digging, companion planting, etc., on growth of tomato plants.

None of these projects would open up major areas of new knowledge for humanity. However, each would contribute significantly to my knowledge — not just the knowledge in my head, but also the knowledge in my hands.
It’s not so much the end knowledge I’d be interested in having (else I could probably find some of it right now with a little internet research). What I find alluring about each of these projects is that they would involve a certain kind of interaction with an experimental system: mastery of empirical techniques, some tinkering, and careful attention. These are “hands-on” features of scientific experimentation, and it seems I miss them a little.
(But not enough to give up my paying job as a philosopher!)