When someone asks you what you do for a living, how do you answer? Do you give your job title? Do you say what kinds of project(s) you are working on? Do you give your company name or name of the topic you work on? From researchers of all stripes,…
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Misfits Matter
How to use the trial and error method to make a scientific discovery. I like moving, exploring new places, and visiting friends and family (for short manageable doses). I can put up with traveling for work. But one thing never ceases to annoy me: Whenever I take a shower…
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Awaken Sleeping Giants
Tell me if this sounds familiar to you: You have a lightbulb moment. A great idea you’ve never seen or heard before. It seems like it could really move things in an amazing new direction. You’re excited. No, SUPER excited. You deluge your friends and family with all the amazing,…
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Can You Make Discoveries Using Old Published Articles?
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…
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Three Keys
It’s that time of year when you suddenly realize that any goals, plans, or New Year’s Resolutions you have for 2019 already seem like a bad idea. I certainly have. I’ve been sick, I’m in the midst of a significant professional transition, and I still can’t even find the notebook…
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Can Team Size Determine if You’ll Achieve Disruptive Science?
THE SHORT READ: The Question How does the size of your research team impact your odds of creating breakthrough science and technology? The Answer The science produced by solo researchers and small teams is more likely to create new knowledge and inventions that disrupt existing scientific…
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Dancing with Discovery
Putting things into categories is helpful. Sometimes it lets you recognize shared commonalities between things that you didn’t notice before. Other times it gives you a mental shortcut to know how to interact with something—once you know its category, you’re more likely to know what it’s for and what to…
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Seek An Improbable Partner
In December I plan to post a series of log entries dedicated to the use of analogies. These posts will be true “log” items, in the sense that they will journal my progress as I try to create a “recipe” for applying analogical thinking in a research physics context, in…
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The Marshmallow Maneuver
Marshmallows are exquisite probes of the human psyche. So, here’s a question: what relationship do marshmallows, tape, string, scientific discovery, and uncooked spaghetti all have in common? (And in case you’re wondering, this week’s feature photo is a bundle of uncooked spaghetti photographed from above.) The answer to the question…
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Real Particles in a Ghost Universe
I love imagination. Ergo, I love thought experiments. I was also inspired to become a physicist by Einstein. Einstein was famous for his thought experiments. Ergo, I love thought experiments. My most recent thought experiment has been to try and flip on its head a way neutrino physicists have of…