payoff = result? It seems not accurate enough

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Context:

"The payoff doesn't really come from making a copy of something that already exists," said George Church, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School who led the research effort in collaboration with Joe Jacobson, an associate professor at the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "You have to change it -- functionally and radically."

More:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110714142130.htm

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Type: Question • Score: 4 • Views: 1,218 • Replies: 17

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@oristarA,

I not sure that it means monetary rewards but it could mean some kind of acknowledgement of intellectual discovery or success.

1 Reply

@tsarstepan,

tsarstepan wrote:

I not sure that it means monetary rewards but it could mean some kind of acknowledgement of intellectual discovery or success.

Thank you.

Could you replace it with another most close word?

1 Reply

@oristarA,

I think it means more than just result, positive result is more like it.

You could say, "Gains don't really result from"....

0 Replies

@oristarA,

This one is a toughie!
Perhaps honor?

oristarA wrote:

The honor doesn't really come from making a copy of something that already exists," said George Church, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School who led the research effort in collaboration with Joe Jacobson, an associate professor at the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "You have to change it -- functionally and radically."

1 Reply

@tsarstepan,

Something on the lines of ... It's no good just to duplicate or clone another person's work. One has to improve on it in order to deserve the accolades.

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Thank you both.

The replies are inspirational.

0 Replies

I don't think the professor's talk of a "payoff" was about "deserving accolades". The success he refers to is the creation of different cells by manipulating the genome.

1 Reply

@contrex,

contrex wrote:

I don't think the professor's talk of a "payoff" was about "deserving accolades". The success he refers to is the creation of different cells by manipulating the genome.

Cool

0 Replies

The reward, it means.

1 Reply

@McTag,

McTag wrote:

The reward, it means.

Well, what is puzzling is, the professor said:"You have to change it ."

You have to change the reward? Oh, God save me.

1 Reply

@oristarA,

The professor seems to be saying (I can't tell exactly, because the excerpt you provide does not include the context) that the REWARD (payoff) in a course of action (research project?) cannot come from copying results and conclusions from work which has been done previously.
You have to CHANGE it (to make a worthwhile breakthrough?)

1 Reply

@McTag,

McTag wrote:

The professor seems to be saying (I can't tell exactly, because the excerpt you provide does not include the context) that the REWARD (payoff) in a course of action (research project?) cannot come from copying results and conclusions from work which has been done previously.
You have to CHANGE it (to make a worthwhile breakthrough?)

　　　Not very consistent.

Click the link in the first post: the article started awkward. It's one of the "****" articles that I've translated into Chinese.

1 Reply

@oristarA,

I have quickly read the article you linked, and from what I can understand, the professor is saying (on the subject of manipulating genetical material) that the rewards (in this field of research) are not in replicating already-existing cells, but in artificially creating new ones.

1 Reply

@McTag,

McTag wrote:

I have quickly read the article you linked, and from what I can understand, the professor is saying (on the subject of manipulating genetical material) that the rewards (in this field of research) are not in replicating already-existing cells, but in artificially creating new ones.

　　Oh, they (the Harvard team) don't have the ability to creat a completely artificial new cells in any near future, which would be a miracle. The evidence, for example, is that they are not able to create the power house of a cell, mitochondria, which is till too complicated to make one artificially.

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Many people seem to think that the professor was making some sweeping statement about the philosophy of research and the rewards thereof; I don't think he is. He is making a much more narrowly focussed remark about what is required to achieve a successful practical outcome in the research he is involved in.

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@oristarA,

oristarA wrote:

Context:

"The payoff doesn't really come from making a copy of something that already exists," said George Church, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School who led the research effort in collaboration with Joe Jacobson, an associate professor at the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "You have to change it -- functionally and radically."

More:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110714142130.htm

If you used 'real value' that might work.

1 Reply

@igm,

igm wrote:

oristarA wrote:

Context:

"The payoff doesn't really come from making a copy of something that already exists," said George Church, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School who led the research effort in collaboration with Joe Jacobson, an associate professor at the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "You have to change it -- functionally and radically."

More:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110714142130.htm

If you used 'real value' that might work.

Good point.

0 Replies

payoff = result? It seems not accurate enough

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