Discovery Awaits the Mind That Pursues It
On why activities should be the largest part of a scientist’s repertoire. This is the first post in a four-part series. In an older post I defined “activities” as “tasks you complete to finish skilled procedures”. One day when I was in high school an English teacher gave our entire…
On the influence of tracking the evolution of your ideas on the pace of discovery. Have you ever moved, or had a big change in your situation, and when you started sorting through everything you wondered why you kept it all? I have been looking through all the…
Many of us believe we struggle because we can’t come up with ideas. My new opinion is that having “breakthroughs” is not the reason why we struggle with scientific discovery. Knowing what to do after you’ve had a breakthrough is where you’ll have challenges. I have come across people…
THE SHORT READ: The Question Can non-scientists help solve complex scientific problems that are tough to answer due to computational limitations? The Answer Yes, through innovative methods like participation in a multiplayer game where gamers direct scientific algorithms and innovate novel search strategies. THE LONG READ: The…
On the website, I focus on how to foster your individual ability to make scientific discoveries. It’s your individual contribution that’s emphasized, even if you work as part of a team, group, or formal collaboration. If you’ve read many of my posts, you will know that I have so far…
Why are categories so useful? When we think about things, especially when we try to understand why things are the way they are, we often try to put things into categories. We like to decide that certain elements fit categories A and B; we match certain processes to categories H…
I love a good mash-up, so let me ask you this: What do you get when you mash-up the ideas of two prolific female academics, one in social work and the other in theoretical physics? The answer is: my musings for this week’s post, which boils down to the phrase…
It’s tempting when we talk to others about our ideas to only want to share the good stuff. To only share the things we think are logical, sound reasonable, maybe only the things we think (or hope) will make us seem smart and focused. But this tendency to re-frame our…
Have you ever watched a movie or TV show, or read a book, where at the end of the story the main character saves the day by doing something unbelievable? By unbelievable I mean that they do something completely out of character. This kind of ending can leave a bad…
THE SHORT READ: The Question Can you make potential scientific discoveries just by reviewing and reading already published research literature? The Answer Yes, if you perform a smart search of published research, it is possible to find important connections in existing knowledge that represent potential discoveries. THE…