research endeavors meaning

The Physics of Materials: How Science Improves Our Lives (1997)

Chapter: 3 the research endeavor, 3 the research endeavor.

The brief story told in Part 2 illustrates how much the world has changed in recent years and the enabling role that condensed-matter and materials physics is playing in modern technology. We turn now to a closely related topic, the fundamental scientific challenges of research in this field. Once again, the capitalized words in the main text link to sidebars that provide more information on a few selected topics.

What is “condensed-matter and materials physics”? Fifty years ago, the transistor emerged from this area of physics. High-temperature superconductivity was discovered by condensed-matter physicists, as were the fascinating low-temperature states of superfluid helium. Scientists in this field have long-standing interests in essentially all aspects of magnetism and magnetic materials. They investigate the properties of glasses, polymeric materials, granular materials, and composites in which diverse constituents are combined to produce entirely new substances with novel properties. They are reaching out to researchers in the earth and atmospheric sciences because they share interests in topics such as friction, fracture, and fluid flow. The outreach to biology and the study of biological materials are now beginning in a serious way.

Hardly any other field of science so seamlessly spans the whole range between the most basic research and the most applied. Advances in basic research inspire new ideas for applications, and application-driven technological advances provide tools that enable new fundamental investigations. At the same time, technological problems raise questions that demand new fundamental insights. For example, with new fundamental understanding of NONEQUILIBRIUM PHENOMENA, we may soon see a qualitative improvement in our ability to predict and control complex properties of the structural materials used to manufacture everything from airplanes and bridges to electronic devices. Technological advances provide tools such as synchrotrons, neutron sources, electron microscopes, high magnetic field facilities, COMPUTERS, and

SCANNING PROBE MICROSCOPES. These tools, in turn, provide unprecedented opportunities to investigate materials on the atomic scale, leading to fundamental discoveries that drive both science and technology. The new physics of THE FRACTIONAL QUANTUM HALL EFFECT, for example, was made possible by new materials fabrication technology. The study of MATTER UNDER EXTREME CONDITIONS has led both to fundamental and practical breakthroughs.

Several of the most profound conceptual developments in science have occurred in CMMP in the last two decades. The so-called “renormalization-group ” theory of critical fluctuations in condensed matter has helped us understand phenomena as varied as phase transformations, the interactions between elementary particles, and the fluctuations of the stock market. Chaos, turbulence, and pattern formation are other core concepts in this field that have had wide-ranging implications across the world of science. The historic role of condensed-matter physicists, ever since the emergence of quantum electronics and the transistor, has been to discover new concepts and phenomena and to develop their new knowledge in ways that are meaningful for fundamental advances in many fields and for practical applications.

What does the future hold for condensed-matter and materials physics? There must be many surprises in store for us. Consider the fact that essentially none of the most important discoveries in this area made in the last decade were anticipated in the 1986 National Research Council report Physics Through the 1990s. And the pace of scientific change, especially when viewed on an international scale, is now accelerating.

A particularly dramatic surprise was the discovery in 1986 of HIGH-TEMPERATURE SUPERC0NDUCTIVITY, which disproved a consensus then growing among scientists that superconductivity could exist only at temperatures very near absolute zero. Now, just over a decade later, we are beginning to see commercially marketed devices based on superconductivity at easily accessible liquid-nitrogen temperatures, and we can look forward to decades of new developments. Even more important, condensed-matter and materials physicists have learned that chemically complex materials, like the new superconductors, can have extraordinarily interesting properties. The study of such complexity in solids is emerging as a whole new style of inquiry.

A different kind of unanticipated complexity is emerging in ARTIFICIALLY STRUCTURED MATERIALS, engineered with features so small that they behave like artificial atoms. These structures are candidates for the next generation of computing elements, but their potential uses in both science and technology go far beyond computing as we know it. As we learn how to assemble increasingly complex structures from more and more complex building blocks, perhaps even from biological molecules, we can anticipate a whole new world of scientific phenomena and practical applications.

Other completely unexpected discoveries of the last decade include FULLERENES, and carbon nanotubes—spherical and cylindrical arrangements of carbon atoms that have remarkable chemical and structural properties. Even more glimpses of the future have recently been provided by observations of intrinsically quantum mechanical behavior in systems so large that they had been thought to be outside the realm where such effects could occur. Such macroscopic quantum phenomena include Bose-Einstein condensation of collections of large numbers of atoms and the excitonic laser. Suddenly, deep philosophical questions about the meaning of observations in quantum mechanics are becoming relevant to the development of entirely new kinds of electronic devices, perhaps even the development of ultrafast quantum computation.

Surely one of the most significant developments on the horizon is the movement of condensed-matter and materials physics into the biological and medical sciences. Here, in parallel with advances in materials, communications, and information technologies, is the other scientific revolution that has profoundly changed our world in recent decades. Modern medical techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging and laser surgery were made possible by research in physics, and THE PHYSICS OF MACROMOLECULES is a well-established area of research at the intersection of physics, chemistry, and biology. Nevertheless, physics laboratories so far have played only relatively minor roles in mainstream biological research.

That situation is about to change. Although we could hardly have imagined such possibilities a decade ago, we now have instruments such as scanning probe microscopes and OPTICAL TWEEZERS that allow us actually to see what large molecules are doing inside biological cells and even to measure the forces that they exert on one another. In centers around the world, scientists are just beginning to use these new tools to solve critical problems involving the physics of biological systems. These problems are posing entirely new intellectual challenges; the implications of their solutions are likely to be immense.

READ FREE ONLINE

Welcome to OpenBook!

You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

Show this book's table of contents , where you can jump to any chapter by name.

...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

Switch between the Original Pages , where you can read the report as it appeared in print, and Text Pages for the web version, where you can highlight and search the text.

To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter .

Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

View our suggested citation for this chapter.

Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

Get Email Updates

Do you enjoy reading reports from the Academies online for free ? Sign up for email notifications and we'll let you know about new publications in your areas of interest when they're released.

Concept of the research endeavor

Cite this chapter.

• Philipp K. Berger 2  

1016 Accesses

At latest since Schumpeter’s (1883-1950) theories, entrepreneurship is widely recognized as a major driver for economic development through innovation. Especially developed countries, like Europe or the United States heavily rely on entrepreneurship and innovation to secure their competitive position (Brixy et al. 2011; European Commission 2012). Not surprising, a critical part in entrepreneurship is the entrepreneur as a human being himself/herself. Generally, innovations are created by the creativity and visions of individuals and are not always the result of a rational, well planned process (Bull & Willard 1993; Kelley et al. 2011; Sánchez López 2012; Bhave 1994). They are therefore often more of an art than a science.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

• Available as PDF
• Read on any device
• Instant download
• Own it forever
• Compact, lightweight edition
• Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
• Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Unable to display preview.  Download preview PDF.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Universität Bremen, Bremen, Germany

Philipp K. Berger

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden

About this chapter

Berger, P. (2015). Concept of the research endeavor. In: The Role of Fear for Entrepreneurial Venture Creation. Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-09000-5_1

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-09000-5_1

Publisher Name : Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden

Print ISBN : 978-3-658-08999-3

Online ISBN : 978-3-658-09000-5

eBook Packages : Business and Economics Business and Management (R0)

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

• Dictionaries home
• American English
• Collocations
• German-English
• Grammar home
• Practical English Usage
• Learn & Practise Grammar (Beta)
• Word Lists home
• My Word Lists
• Recent additions
• Resources home
• Text Checker

Definition of endeavor noun from the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary

Join our community to access the latest language learning and assessment tips from Oxford University Press!

Other results

Nearby words.

Definition of 'endeavor'

endeavor in American English

Browse alphabetically endeavor.

• endearingness
• endeavourment
• All ENGLISH words that begin with 'E'

Related terms of endeavor

• Christian Endeavor

Quick word challenge

Quiz Review

Score: 0 / 5

Wordle Helper

Scrabble Tools

• Daily Crossword
• Word Puzzle
• Word Finder
• Word of the Day
• Synonym of the Day
• Word of the Year
• Language stories
• All featured
• Gender and sexuality
• All pop culture
• Writing hub
• Grammar essentials
• Commonly confused
• All writing tips
• Pop culture
• Writing tips

Advertisement

/ ɪnˈdɛvə /

• to try (to do something)
• an effort to do or attain something

Discover More

Derived forms.

• enˈdeavourer , noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of endeavour 1

Example Sentences

Back then, the infrastructure wasn’t in place to make in-game advertisers a cost-effective endeavour.

But this was compounded by the core characteristic of the Nazi endeavour: its ideology.

Why do you think the popularity of the Oxford trinity—Lewis, Morse, and now prequel Endeavour—continues to endure?

He could not have foreseen the drama attending the twice-delayed launch of the shuttle Endeavour.

Apparently, agreement could not be reached, and NASA is now looking for a new launch date—likely, April 29—for the Endeavour.

After studying my formulas let the pupil endeavour in each case to find a better one himself.

The Americans will endeavour by all imaginable means to induce us to help them against Spain.

"We must endeavour to ascertain where Gordon is," replied Mr. Carr, as he re-enclosed the letter in his pocket-book.

He held all the records for height, and it was known that at Attercliffe he meant to endeavour to eclipse his own achievements.

They did at first endeavour with their weapons to frighten us, who, lying ashore, deterred them from one of their fishing-places.

• Cambridge Dictionary +Plus

Meaning of endeavour in English

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 audio

• give something your best shot idiom
• go after someone
• go all out idiom
• go down swinging/fighting idiom
• go for someone
• shoot for the moon idiom
• shoot the works idiom
• smarten (someone/something) up
• smarten up your act idiom
• square the circle idiom

Examples of endeavour

Collocations with endeavour.

These are words often used in combination with endeavour .

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

Translations of endeavour

Get a quick, free translation!

Word of the Day

gyroscopically

with the use of a gyroscope (= a device containing a wheel that spins freely within a frame, used on aircraft, ships, etc. to help keep them horizontal)

Varied and diverse (Talking about differences, Part 1)

Learn more with +Plus

• Recent and Recommended {{#preferredDictionaries}} {{name}} {{/preferredDictionaries}}
• Definitions Clear explanations of natural written and spoken English English Learner’s Dictionary Essential British English Essential American English
• Grammar and thesaurus Usage explanations of natural written and spoken English Grammar Thesaurus
• Pronunciation British and American pronunciations with audio English Pronunciation
• English–Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Simplified)–English
• English–Chinese (Traditional) Chinese (Traditional)–English
• English–Dutch Dutch–English
• English–French French–English
• English–German German–English
• English–Indonesian Indonesian–English
• English–Italian Italian–English
• English–Japanese Japanese–English
• English–Norwegian Norwegian–English
• English–Polish Polish–English
• English–Portuguese Portuguese–English
• English–Spanish Spanish–English
• English–Swedish Swedish–English
• Dictionary +Plus Word Lists
• English    Verb, noun
• Collocations
• Translations
• All translations

To add endeavour to a word list please sign up or log in.

Add endeavour to one of your lists below, or create a new one.

{{message}}

Something went wrong.

There was a problem sending your report.

Synonyms of endeavor

• as in attempt
• as in to strive
• as in to attempt
• More from M-W
• To save this word, you'll need to log in. Log In

Thesaurus Definition of endeavor

 (Entry 1 of 2)

Synonyms & Similar Words

• undertaking
• trial and error

Thesaurus Definition of endeavor  (Entry 2 of 2)

• beaver (away)
• apply (oneself)
• sweat blood
• buckle (down)
• hammer (away)
• grind (out)
• knuckle down

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• hang (around or out)
• hack (around)
• slack (off)
• fool around
• goof (around)
• mess around
• putter (around)
• monkey (around)
• potter (around)
• have a go at
• try one's hand (at)

Synonym Chooser

How does the verb endeavor differ from other similar words?

Some common synonyms of endeavor are attempt , essay , strive , and try . While all these words mean "to make an effort to accomplish an end," endeavor heightens the implications of exertion and difficulty.

Where would attempt be a reasonable alternative to endeavor ?

The synonyms attempt and endeavor are sometimes interchangeable, but attempt stresses the initiation or beginning of an effort.

When might essay be a better fit than endeavor ?

Although the words essay and endeavor have much in common, essay implies difficulty but also suggests tentative trying or experimenting.

In what contexts can strive take the place of endeavor ?

The meanings of strive and endeavor largely overlap; however, strive implies great exertion against great difficulty and specifically suggests persistent effort.

How do try and attempt relate to one another, in the sense of endeavor ?

Try is often close to attempt but may stress effort or experiment made in the hope of testing or proving something.

Thesaurus Entries Near endeavor

endear (to)

Cite this Entry

“Endeavor.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/endeavor. Accessed 12 May. 2024.

More from Merriam-Webster on endeavor

Nglish: Translation of endeavor for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of endeavor for Arabic Speakers

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Can you solve 4 words at once?

Word of the day.

See Definitions and Examples »

Get Word of the Day daily email!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

More commonly misspelled words, your vs. you're: how to use them correctly, every letter is silent, sometimes: a-z list of examples, more commonly mispronounced words, how to use em dashes (—), en dashes (–) , and hyphens (-), popular in wordplay, the words of the week - may 10, a great big list of bread words, 10 scrabble words without any vowels, 8 uncommon words related to love, 9 superb owl words, games & quizzes.