How do I leave my individuality on the world?

As I was listening to Radio Lab, an NPR podcast that delves into a variety of scientific topics in an interesting way, I was exposed to an insight about science that I had never really thought about. Everyday I’m reading papers, doing research, and learning about science in general. However, this was above and beyond the actual day-to-day science; it was more of a philosophical take on science.

The set-up: Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich are interviewing Alan Lightman, an ex-theoretical physicist. Alan was working on the problem of how globular clusters (a glob of stars) hang together - the gravity that links them. He thought he had found something so unique, but as he was in the process of writing up his research, he began to look at papers of other people who did simlar work. He was flipping thorugh some current journals and stumbled upon a title that look alarmingly like it could have been the title to the paper he was working on. After reading the paper, Alan realized that two guys from Japan had found exactly what he had found...

Below is my attempt at a transcript from the interview:
Jad Abumrad: So what they had found was exactly what you had found?
Alan: Well they would have had to find exactly what I had found, because this is the world of science. And the world of science has this terrible precision.
I was crest-fallen. I was so disappointed. I felt humiliated. I felt stupid.
And then another sensation went through me and that was a felling of amazement. That these two guys on the other side of the planet with no communication with me, sitting at their desk, worked on the same problem, and had gotten the same results.
Jad: The exact same results ...
Alan: Any scientist anywhere in the universe solving this problem would have gotten that answer. There really IS something outside of our bodies and independent of our minds. This is both a wonderful thing and a terrible thing.
It’s a wonderful thing because there is a beauty to it, there is a feeling of power and control.
But the tragedy of this, which I felt at the same time, is that, what is the relevance of me as an individual person if anybody else could have solved the same problem? Then why was I needed? What was the meaning of my life? How do I leave my individuality on the world? Certainly not through - science.
Jad: Here is what happened. Alan gave up the practice of bench science and became a novelist. Einstein’s Dreams won the Pulitzer Prize. (great book) That’s his work. It couldn’t have happened without him.
Alan: And that is a profound difference between the sciences and the arts.
Jad: If the Ode to Joy had not been in Beethoven's head it might not necessarily been come around.
Alan: The Tempest would not have been written by anyone but Shakespeare.

You can listen to a stream of the podcast "here" under Thrill of Discovery.



So here's the question... When a scientist makes a discovery, is it their brilliant work, the product of a beautiful mind, or is it just out there in the world, waiting for whomever happens to get there first?

This whole concept is weird to think about. It's not that I am not fulfilled in making discoveries that others could make if they were working on the same problem. It is just something that I have never thought about before.