Thesis / Dissertation Topic or Outline Proposal (Part 2)

"To explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for any one age. 'Tis much better to do a little with certainty, and leave the rest for others that come after you, than to explain all things by conjecture without making sure of any thing." Isaac Newton

Would it still be possible to come up with an outstanding research that stems from a pioneering work or other similar projects?
A familiar example from the discipline of science will show that working on a topic that stems from past investigations may still engender a good research. For instance, although Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton were interested in giving us an accurate picture of the universe, their inquiries, investigative methods, and proofs led them to different cosmological models. While Ptolemy asserted that the earth is the center of the solar system and the universe (geocentric picture of the universe), Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton argued that it is easier to prove that the earth may just be a part of a larger system whose center is the sun (heliocentric picture of the universe). It must be noted, however, that despite the objection Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton leveled at the Ptolemaic cosmological model, they did not necessarily end up offering identical theories. This means that each of the theories, despite their deficiencies, must have contributed something new to the scientific fund of knowledge at the time when they were propounded. For example, Copernicus delivered the first blow to the Ptolemaic theory by arguing that the planets move in circles around the steady sun. Galileo later on added that a number of moons travel around the planet Jupiter and that celestial bodies are governed by the Law of Inertia. Kepler’s work, later on, showed that the planets are actually traveling in elliptical orbits. This led to the final rejection of Copernicus’ claim that the planets move in circles. Newton, in his Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, explained that planets move around the sun because of magnetic forces. Newton is also known for another contribution, which is the Law of Universal Gravitation. The search for knowledge about the cosmos did not stop right here as many things hitherto remain to be discovered and said about what appears to be a boundless and enigmatic thing that we call universe. Again, the research endeavors here were all concerned with one topic, a sound picture of the universe. And as shown, it's a gargantuan project that continuously gives rise to a chain of remarkable works that seem to gradually lead to an arguably more and more refined picture of the universe.

See Thesis / Dissertation Topic Outline Proposal (Part 1) for part 0ne of this post.