I have several amusing stories regarding the pursuit of science, but I will limit my storytelling to the confused search for the cause of coconut cadang-cadang.

In 1949, when I came back from abroad, I got caught up in the furor over the cadang-cadang disease of coconut. Plant pathologists were in a race to transmit the water-soaked specks on the leaves of diseased trees to seedlings or young coconut trees. This was an effort to demonstrate the pathogenic or infectious nature of cadang-cadang.

There were claims of successful transmission by pinpricks. However, the water-soaked spots were not produced in succeeding leaves, and the test plants subsequently grew healthy.

Parenthetically, we (you and I) seldom recall/realize that our expectation "colors" our observation. For example, if we expect to produce water-soaked specks in our test plant, there is a strong likelihood that we will see water-soaking in any spot we happen to observe.

When we (my colleagues and I) got drawn into the fray, we diffidently hypothesized that the disease might be caused by something detrimental in the soil. To test this, we collected soil samples from around diseased trees in various places. In classifying the trees, we used water-soaked spots as a symptom of the disease – i.e., we uncritically adopted the criterion used by plant pathologists.

To serve as control or base of comparison we also gathered soil samples from healthy trees in Quezon and Laguna.

We compared the two groups on texture, color, pH, reaction to dilute and to strong mineral acids, etc… We were "firing shots in the dark," and we did not know if there was a target, and, if there was any, where it was located. This may seem foolish, but we were hoping against hope that the firing would shed a ray of light to dispel the darkness.

Then we fancied on analyzing a few elements in the soil. We tried to find out if a particular element was present, and if so, in what concentration. We reasoned that if absent, or in minimum concentration, it could cause deficiency symptoms. If in excessive concentration, the element could cause toxic symptoms. We had a long list of expectations and a still longer task of relating the element to cadang-cadang.

We tried to analyze for copper. And after disappointing results, we suspected the presence of aluminum. Our effort was a series of taking interest in an element, and later dropping it for another.

One friend jokingly commented: "Joe is living up to the California tradition. If he does not find his quest in the periodic table, he is likely to create a new element."

Then out of the blue we speculated and asked ourselves, "what will happen if pairs of similar trees are transplanted – one in a diseased area and another in a healthy area?" However, there are many complications in implementation which make such a comparative study rather daunting. For example, the inconvenience in handling relatively big trees, the difficulty of finding non-diseased areas within the Bicol region, the long time of waiting for results, etc.

But just the same, and after much vacillation, we opted to start the experiment in 1969. (Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.) For sites of the experiment, we chose the Guinobatan Experiment, Guinobatan, Albay, as the diseased area, and the Bureau of Plant Industry provincial nursery in Juban, Sorsogon, as the putatively non-diseased area. Pairs for transplanting were secured from Tigaon, Iriga, Nabua, Ligao, Mallipot, Pilar, Bacon, and Prieto Diaz.

The growth of the transplants and their nut production were recorded periodically. Curiously the trees in Guinobatan grew faster and produced many more nuts than their counterpart trees in Juban. However, in 1989, two trees had died in Guinobatan but all the trees in Juban were normally productive. In 1996, or 27 years after transplanting, only five (out of the initial eight trees) were alive in Guinobatan, and four of them were in a severe stage and one in a mild stage of cadangcadang. On the other hand, the trees in Juban were alive, non-diseased and normally fruiting.

These results strongly pointed to the soil as a factor in the cadang-cadang problem. Subsequent studies pointed to the rare earths in the soil – especially cerium and lanthanum as the recreant factor. But subsequent studies may be another tale worth telling, sometime later.

At this point, we want to emphasize that the search for knowledge is the message. Of course, some people claim that, "the thrill of the chase overshadows the spoils of the hunt."