Imagine the person closest to you is talking to you right after the public announcement that confirms your discovery.
Are they smiling at you and are you smiling back? Is your heart racing happily?
Would you laugh, feel excited, have a burst of energy?
There’s a good reason why we hope to make a discovery when we start doing science. A reason beyond the endorphins and adrenaline hit, the recognition and praise.
Scientific discoveries change the world.
We intuitively know that scientific discovery is more high impact than regular science.
Making something that matters is a desire we all share.
But in science the fear of failure can keep us from trying to have that impact, to make that discovery.
Thinking about discovery as levels that we can accumulate one at a time can take the energy out of that fear and put it back into the motivation to try.
Scientific impact lies on a continuum from low to high determined by how many essential qualities a discovery captures.
A quick recap if you haven’t read the post on those qualities (check it out): what makes a scientific discovery different from regular research is that the new finding has a radical, universal, or novel quality, or some combination. Radical means it shifts our perspective. Universal means it extends our knowledge from a smaller area to a bigger one. Novel means it’s never been discovered before.
Impact classes for scientific discovery are based on the number of qualities a new finding possesses.
The more discovery qualities a science finding has, the higher, broader, and longer its impact.
I’ve identified three discovery impact classes:
Minor class discoveries possess only one of the three vital discovery qualities. So, they are radical, or universal, or novel, but not some combination. These are the easiest class of discoveries to pursue and they are just a small step up from regular research.
Major class discoveries possess at least two essential discovery qualities. For example, a major class discovery might find something new and shift our perspective about the world (be novel and radical). This discovery class can really change things, but it’s harder to achieve them.
Legacy class discoveries must have all three discovery qualities. These split the world into “before” and “after”. They bring radical, universal, and novel understanding to the table. These are the hardest class of discovery to make.
Science spans from regular research to legacy class discoveries on an incremental spectrum defined by the discovery essential qualities.
This spectrum idea is powerful because it means we can start out further down but accumulate toward a big result over time.
Think of making a discovery like building a house. You are building the support beam structure. If you need to place a nail, you can try to whack it hard and hope it goes in without getting destroyed (or smashing your finger).
Or you can tap tap tap the nail with a hammer over time. Each hit drives the nail further in toward your goal and every nail that holds make the structure more secure.
Starting with regular research and then leveling up by tap tapping at minor class discoveries, then major, then legacy is a solid way to approach your discovery goals. And you’re less likely to get hurt or break something in the process. The more hits and nails you get in the stronger your house of knowledge gets.
Understanding the classes and that discovery is on a spectrum means everything you do drives toward discovery and discovery has no end point.
We fear failure because we think of discovery as a fixed, unobtainable, high-performing and out-of-reach goal.
I call this the “Einstein or bust” mindset. We get stuck thinking that if it’s not a legacy class discovery it doesn’t count. Why try?
But the minute you get involved in science you are automatically on the discovery spectrum. And there is more than one level of discovery, each with its own meaningful impact.
It’s not possible to “fall off” or “fail out” of a spectrum.
But you can always start small and build up from where you are to make your first discovery and then bigger and bigger discoveries.
Simply put, knowing the three levels of scientific discovery will end your fear of failure because no matter where you are on the spectrum of discovery now you can build toward higher levels one small doable step at a time.
Reflection Question
If you got a phone call tomorrow saying you were being awarded the world’s biggest prize for having made a scientific discovery, what would you do that night to celebrate?
If I told you there was a study that found what actions you take for the next 10 minutes determines whether or not you will make a scientific discovery in your life…how would you spend that time?
How does thinking about the impact of what your doing right now on your discovery potential make you feel? Guilty, curious, confused, even overwhelmed?
Unfortunately, no such study exists. Instead, there are plenty of biographies analyzing how the Einstein’s of the world spent their time.
Don’t get me wrong.
Getting inspired by previous scientific discoveries and the stories behind them is wonderful motivation.
But it doesn’t tell you how to spend the next 10 minutes of your life to make your own discoveries. For that you need an action plan.
So let me share the scientific discovery framework that I’ve developed, which will give you a plan. It’s helped me see how discovery gets done and it will help you too.
There are lots of parts to scientific discovery, but they all fit together in a logical whole.
In a series of posts, I’ll explain my framework for connecting those parts and how you can prioritize your efforts to get moving on making a discovery.
This first post lays out the big picture of scientific discovery. Get ready for an information download! Stick with it. Don’t worry if it feels like a lot. Shorter follow-up posts will guide you. Jump in and out of the series anywhere – the posts are all standalone. You can take it all in as you have time.
Let’s get to it.
I’ve identified six core areas that power scientific discovery:
1. Discovery repertoire. The personal portfolio of techniques that you use to get science done is your scientist’s repertoire. There are four sections to your internal portfolio: how you think about your science (mindset), what tasks you know how to complete to get science done (activities), the recipes you have for combining outcomes with actions (skills), and what you know (knowledge). When you have a solid plan, but still don’t make progress on your science it means you need to strengthen a weak part of your repertoire.
2. Discovery capacities. Learning new things in science and technology is driven by four human capacities: innovation, invention, insight, and scientific discovery. Capacities get different results because they are driven by different motivations. Innovation motivates us to improve the way something works. Invention motivates us to build devices that will do something useful. Insight motivates us to change how we see the world. Scientific discovery motivates us to explain how the world works. Insight and scientific discovery are core capacities that build on each other.
3. Discovery vital qualities. The difference between a scientific discovery and regular scientific research is that a new discovery-level scientific finding will have at least one of three vital qualities: It will shift our perspective on the world (be radical), it will link knowledge to make a broader range of predictions about the world (be universal), and/or it will be new knowledge (be novel). Your work should have one of these qualities as an objective to aim for discovery-level science.
4. Discovery impact classes. Scientific discovery intuitively feels more high impact than regular science. That impact lies on a continuum from low to high, determined by how many vital qualities a discovery captures. Minor class discoveries possess only one of the three vital qualities. Major class discoveries possess at least two and legacy class discoveries must have all three. Science spans from regular research to legacy class discoveries on an incremental spectrum defined by these qualities. So, start small and build up to the big discoveries.
5. Discovery learning categories. Scientific discovery learns something new about the world. What you learn falls into three categories: something about an unknown object (object-type), something about the properties of an object (attribute-type), or something about how and why the world works the way it does (mechanism-type). Some categories are easier to make discoveries in because the learning curve is smaller.
6. Discovery evolution phases. Most scientific discoveries evolve through five phases, which I call the discovery cycle. First, you ask an unanswered question (question). Then you form ideas for an answer (ideation). You make those ideas into tests in the real world (articulation). You run the tests and evaluate the results (evaluation). And if the results repeatedly prove true then they become a scientific discovery (verification). Troubleshooting your scientific discovery progress is easier if you know what phase you are in because unique problems trip up scientists at each phase.
The framework I’ve developed lets you craft a scientific discovery action plan, troubleshoot your progress, and connect specific activities and techniques with the results you want to achieve.
The simplest starting point? Aim for a minor class, attribute-type discovery that is universal. That represents a baby step from current science to something new. And if you hit an obstacle check your insight in a systematic way and seek out techniques to boost you from one phase of scientific discovery to the next.
No matter where you start, be inspired by the scientific discovery stories of others, but don’t stay stuck in them. Discovery isn’t a sightseeing tour through known territory. It’s a push toward unknown territory.
Simply put, to make a scientific discovery you need a plan for how to tackle the unknown, not a map of the known.
Take Action
Once you’ve got a framework and a plan, spend the next 10 minutes taking action. You’ll be 10 minutes closer to making your next discovery.
Have you have ever been on the receiving end of a colleague, boss, or even stranger sitting next to you on a plane (ah, the good old days before coronavirus), asking you questions like,
“But what impact will your work have?”
“Can you study something more interesting/important?”, or even,
“Who cares?”
If so, then you have come up against a problem all researchers, scientists, and citizen scientists face: How to try and do the best possible, most high impact, most important science you are capable of as often as possible.
What you are aiming for is a scientific discovery. And what well-meaning acquaintances and strangers are asking for is the same thing.
But how do you do that? Trying to aim that high can seem overwhelming.
The Problem: Many existing definitions of scientific discovery are good for textbooks, but not for project planning, follow-through, or troubleshooting.
My Solution: Define “scientific discovery” so that you can achieve it with training and algorithms, and perform quantitative studies to probe it.
The purpose of this post is to lay out all the key components that will help us train ourselves to become better discoverers. You can see this framework drawn in my concept sketchnote below.
My hand drawn sketchnote of the “architecture of scientific discovery” showing all the important parts of the process. (Artist: Bernadette K. Cogswell. For reprint permission, contact me.)
There is a lot of ground to cover, so in this post I am going to give short descriptions of everything in the big picture.
In the following 22 (!) posts in the series, I will drill down into each of the 18 parts in more detail, with examples taken from science history.
Now let’s jump in…
Group 1:
Discovery Capacities
Scientific discovery is just one of four human capacities for discovery in science and technology.
Let’s zoom in on the discovery architecture picture I’ve drawn above.
A close-up of my sketchnote showing the four discovery capacities at the core of the discovery architecture. (Artist: Bernadette K. Cogswell. For reprint permission, contact me.)
As human beings, we have the capacity to discover new things in science and technology. These discovery capacities form the main part of the structure and they house all our abilities and knowledge about science and technology.
These discovery capacities fall into four types—insight, invention, innovation, and scientific discovery. The main differences between types are their results and our reasons and motivations for pursuing a discovery.
So let me give you a definition of insight, a definition of invention, a definition of innovation, and a definition of scientific discovery.
Insight
Definition of insight:
“Insight” is refining the accuracy of your perspective of the real world.
Getting a more accurate perspective, or “achieving insight,” is accomplished in one of three ways. You can add something new to your perspective that you were not aware of before. You can correct something that you misperceived. Or you can clarify something that you only vaguely understood.
Motivation: “I want to…change how I see the world.”
Invention
Definition of invention:
”Invention” is building a machine or process that creates a previously unobtainable result.
Creating a previously impossible result, or “inventing something new”, is brought about by focusing on three aspects of what you build. You want to build something that has not been built that way before. You want to build something that does what it was built to do. And you want what you built to create something that a machine or process like it has not created before.
Motivation: “I want to…build a device that will do something useful.”
Innovation
Definition of innovation:
”Innovation” is improving the functionality of a process or device.
Refining how things work, or “innovating”, is really about making things work better more easily. You can make something function more efficiently. You can make something run faster or with fewer resources. You can make something more likely to produce what it was designed to produce. And you can make something produce a higher quality version of what it was designed to produce.
Motivation: “I want to…improve the way things work.”
Scientific Discovery
Definition of scientific discovery:
”Scientific Discovery” is finding the evidence, interaction, and causes of things that exist in the natural world.
Learning something new about nature, or “making a scientific discovery,” relies on three things. You must acquire knowledge. You must demonstrate that the phenomena exist using evidence and statistical or logical analysis. And the knowledge you acquire must include one or more element of the radical, the universal, or the novel (those are defined in the next section).
Motivation: “I want to…explain how the world works.”
In this framework “applied science” can be defined as a combination of mastering the capacities for invention and innovation, while “fundamental science” or “basic science” can be defined as a combination of mastering the capacities for insight and scientific discovery. By “science” I mean the physical sciences (e.g., astronomy, biology, chemistry, computer science, data science, engineering, geology, medicine, paleontology, physics, etc.), the social sciences (e.g., anthropology, economics, political science, psychology, sociology, etc.), and mathematics.
(Also, you might wonder why insight is listed as its own discovery capacity since it is integral to the other three discovery capacities, invention, innovation, and scientific discovery. This is true. However, it’s more useful to put it on an equal footing with the other three capacities. It’s easier to develop training protocols, algorithms, and quantitative metrics to explore discovery methods, all goals for developing this framework.)
Group 2:
Scientific Discovery Vital Qualities
There are three qualities any scientific study or research must have, or it can’t be called a “scientific discovery”.
The three scientific discovery qualities are the foundation on which we can build any kind of discovery.
A close-up of my sketchnote showing the three qualities that form the foundation of defining something as a scientific discovery. (Artist: Bernadette K. Cogswell. For reprint permission, contact me.)
They are integral to recognizing discovery and generating discoveries.
These three essential qualities form the basis of what makes scientific discovery different from everyday scientific investigation and scientific research.
How is scientific discovery different from scientific investigation? Scientific discovery has a higher and more long-lasting impact on the evolution of science. So let’s define the vital qualities that embody that impact and enduring nature.
Radical
Definition of the radical quality of scientific discovery:
The “radical” quality of scientific discovery means that the new knowledge gained as a result of the discovery represents a meaningful shift in perspective from the previous state of knowledge.
Role in scientific impact and longevity: Scientific discovery is radical—it changes the perspective of science in one of three ways. Something can be added to what we know. Something can be rejected from what we thought we knew. Or something that we know can be changed. By impacting our scientific perspective, the radicality of scientific discovery opens up new avenues of research and creates or ends long-standing practices and beliefs.
Universal
Definition of the universal quality of scientific discovery:
The “universal” quality of scientific discovery means that the knowledge acquired as a result of discovery is valid and reliable and that the knowledge gained has predictive or descriptive power in a range of physical situations.
Role in scientific impact and longevity: Scientific discoveries have a broad impact because the new knowledge they bring has a range of application. The universal nature of a scientific discovery lies on a spectrum from “proximal” to “distal”. “Proximal” means that the new knowledge can be applied to a broad range of areas with few changes to its verified form. “Distal” means that the new knowledge discovered can only be applied to areas and phenomena closely or directly related to the area in which the discovery was made, or that to apply it to other areas requires a lot of translation. The scientific discoveries with the most direct universal appeal have the longest legacies.
Novel
Definition of the novel quality of scientific discovery:
The “novel” quality of scientific discovery means that the knowledge obtained through the discovery has not been previously shown to exist, in a reproducible way, by observation or experimentation.
Role in scientific impact and longevity: Scientific discoveries electrify areas of science because they bring something new to the table. And when those new elements are verified, they shape future research activities and ways of thinking.
The impact effects of scientific discoveries and their longevity, as forces that shape research practice, effort, and interest, are embodied in the three vital qualities at the foundation of the scientific discovery architecture. They give scientific discovery it’s je ne sais quoi factor that inspires the layperson and the scientist alike.
Group 3:
Scientific Discovery Impact Classes
The impact and significance of all scientific discoveries can be grouped into three classes.
The purpose of discovery is progress in some area (understanding, outcomes, effectiveness, and knowledge as we saw from the section on the four discovery capacities above).
The discovery classes represent broad categories that help identify the level of impact (or progress) that our discoveries are capable of achieving or fostering.
These classes, therefore, overarch the specific categories of scientific discoveries.
A close-up of my sketchnote showing the three discovery impact classes that overach all scientific discovery and describe a discovery’s effect and longevity. (Artist: Bernadette K. Cogswell. For reprint permission, contact me.)
In particular, the discovery classes encompass three different levels of impact, from wide-ranging to narrow, as described in their definitions below, and as represented by the fact that the three domes of discovery impact classes are nested in my sketchnote diagram.
Minor
Definition of a minor impact class scientific discovery:
A “minor” class discovery meets the criteria for any one of the three vital qualities of scientific discovery—radical, universal, or novel.
Minor scientific discoveries are either radical, universal, or novel, but not all three at once. Therefore, they have an impact beyond ordinary scientific investigation, but their impact is limited.
Major
Definition of a major impact class scientific discovery:
A “major” class discovery meets any two of the three criteria for the vital qualities of scientific discovery—radical, universal, or novel.
Major scientific discoveries are either radical and universal, or radical and novel, or universal and novel, etc. They have two of the three vital qualities, but are missing the third one. As a result, their impact tends to be more wide-spread than minor class discoveries, but not as high impact as they could be if they embodied all three qualities.
Legacy
Definition of a legacy impact class scientific discovery:
A “legacy” class discovery meets all three criteria for the vital qualities of scientific discovery—radical, universal, and novel.
Legacy class discoveries are the full package—radical, universal, and novel. The impact of legacy class scientific discoveries is wide-ranging and long-lasting. These are the hardest scientific discoveries to achieve, but the ones with the greatest value.
Group 4:
Scientific Discovery Learning Categories
The types of scientific discoveries you could make can be grouped into three categories.
The learning categories are specific to only one of the discovery capacities, scientific discovery (they are not intended to be applied, by analogy, to insight, invention, or innovation).
These categories of scientific discovery divide the field of knowledge obtained through scientific discovery into three areas. These areas are determined by the kind of information you hope to gain, or your learning objective.
Object
Definition of the object type scientific discovery:
An “object” scientific discovery is acquiring knowledge about the existence of a new object in nature.
Learning Goal: Answers the question, “Does something exist?”
Attribute
Definition of the attribute type scientific discovery:
An “attribute” scientific discovery is acquiring knowledge about the characteristics, properties, and/or traits of an object or process in nature.
Learning Goal: Answers the question, “What is something like?”
Mechanism
Definition of the mechanism type scientific discovery:
A “mechanism” scientific discovery is acquiring knowledge about the causes, connections, interactions, and/or sequences of objects and attributes in nature.
Learning Goal: Answers the question, “How does something work?” and/or “Why does something happen?”
A close-up of my sketchnote showing the different types of discoveries you can make as central to the architecture of discovery. (Artist: Bernadette K. Cogswell. For reprint permission, contact me.)
Let’s look at this part of the discovery architecture more closely, as shown above in my sketchnote drawing.
The scientific discovery learning goals are shown under the dome of the scientific discovery classes because they can fall under (i.e., be impacted by or represented in) all the classes of scientific discoveries.
Another way to think of it is that the scientific discovery classes are umbrella terms that cover all the categories or types of scientific discoveries you could make.
(Again, this is just the overview, in future posts I will talk about each of these in more detail and it will begin to make more sense as you see examples and further discussion.)
Onward to the last group I want to cover in this post…
Group 5:
Scientific Discovery Cycle
(Evolution Phases)
Most scientific discoveries must pass through five phases.
All of the above groups—the discovery capacities, the scientific discovery classes, the scientific discovery categories, and the scientific discovery qualities—form the main architecture of scientific discovery.
You can think of these like a very old and sturdy building, where every brick and design element of the structure is built up out of our application of the discovery capacities, classes, categories, and qualities and the knowledge, abilities, devices, and processes that we have created as a result.
There is one more important element in the overall architecture, and that is represented by the sun shown in the upper right hand corner of my sketchnote illustration.
A close-up of my sketchnote showing how the scientific discovery cycle illuminates all other aspects of discovery. (Artist: Bernadette K. Cogswell. For reprint permission, contact me.)
The sun represents the process that drives scientific discovery, or the “scientific discovery cycle”, which shines a light on all the other elements of the architecture so that we can become aware of them and manipulate them in the course of running our projects as scientists.
Below I summarize each of the five evolutionary stages of the scientific discovery cycle.
Question
Definition of the question phase of the scientific discovery process:
The “question phase of scientific discovery” is the stage in the process when the question to be answered, or problem to be solved, is explicitly defined.
Purpose of Stage: Define what you want to find, create, or explain.
Ideation
Definition of the ideation phase of the scientific discovery process:
The “ideation phase of scientific discovery” is the stage in the process when a possible solution or solutions is conceived of to answer the discovery question or solve the discovery problem.
Purpose of Stage: Come up with a guess for how you will find it, create it, or explain it.
Articulation
Definition of the articulation phase of the scientific discovery process:
The “articulation phase of scientific discovery” is the stage in the process when at least one proposed solution is put into a form that can be tested in the real world.
Purpose of Stage: Write an equation or description, or build or code a prototype, embodying your answer.
Evaluation
Definition of the evaluation phase of the scientific discovery process:
The “evaluation phase of scientific discovery” is the stage in the process when the testable solution is probed and its success in answering the discovery question, or solving the discovery problem, is assessed.
Purpose of Stage: Test your equation, description, code, or prototype to see if it answers your question.
Verification
Definition of the verification phase of the scientific discovery process:
The “verification phase of scientific discovery” is the stage in the process when the best available solution to answer the discovery question, or solve the discovery problem, is confirmed to be accurate and reliable by multiple independent analyses.
Purpose of Stage: Subject your “discovery” to public scrutiny and see if it holds up to testing.
Note that, the way I have defined it, the scientific discovery cycle is different from the scientific method.
The scientific method focuses on how to obtain valid and reliable information about the world. But it is not concerned with the impact of that knowledge.
The scientific discovery cycle (or scientific discovery process) is concerned with the impact of the knowledge obtained and its purpose is to obtain knowledge of a certain minimum impact level (namely, knowledge that is either radical, novel, or universal and, therefore, at least meets the standard for a minor class discovery).
The scientific method would be used to obtain relevant insight at various phases within the scientific discovery cycle (such as during articulation, evaluation, and verification).
Therefore, the scientific method is one set of activities in the scientist’s repertoire, which they can use to help them complete the evolution stages in the scientific discovery cycle. They are connected, but distinct.
Summary
Phew!
That brings us to the end of my overview of the architecture of discovery that I have built as a way to develop better discovery training protocols and quantitative methods to identify patterns and correlations in discovery processes.
If you are someone who loves algorithms or self-improvement, then this architecture and way of conceptualizing discovery and how to achieve it is for you.
So much good stuff to talk about!
I’m really looking forward to writing the rest of the posts in this series. Having these new words and concepts in my discovery arsenal has already helped me organize and conduct my research projects in a new way. And it makes extracting nuggets of insight from examples of scientific discovery much more productive.
To wrap up this post, let me give you the very, very short, bullet-list version of “the architecture of scientific discovery” that I covered in this post:
Scientific discovery is just one of four human discovery capacities—including insight, invention, and innovation—in science and technology.
There are three vital qualities—radical, universal, and novel—any scientific study must have, or it should not be called a “scientific discovery.”
The significance of scientific discoveries can be grouped into three impact classes—minor, major, and legacy—which range from low to high impact.
The types of scientific discoveries you could make can be grouped into three learning categories—object, attribute, or mechanism—based on the information gained.
Most scientific discoveries must pass through five evolution stages—question, ideation, articulation, evaluation, and verification—to succeed.
With all these categories and types, it’s easy to fall into the trap of seeing things as black and white, or just buckets to assign things too.
But the definitions and concepts I’ve come up with work well because they allow us to see scientific discovery as a continuum of insight, from narrow to broad, from low impact to high impact, from fundamental to applied.
Every scientific investigation, every research study, every time you use the scientific method, you are placing yourself somewhere on that continuum of insight. Discovery is always just a little way further along that scale. The question you should be asking yourself is not “Am I making, or trying to make, a discovery?” it’s “Where on the discovery spectrum am I working right now?”
So next time someone challenges you on your impact, dream brave and think (or tell them), “I’m working on some (minor/major) research questions right now, but my dream is to leave a legacy discovery for future generations to build on.”
And hopefully with this discovery architecture in your mental repertoire, you will someday be able to do just that.
Bernadette K. Cogswell, “The Architecture of Scientific Discovery: Overview of the Process – On how to define and categorize all aspects of scientific discovery”, The Insightful Scientist Blog, June 13, 2020, https://insightfulscientist.com/blog/2020/architecture-of-scientific-discovery-overview.
[Page feature photo: A quiet and quirky cabin sits among the mountains. Photo by Torbjorn Sandbakk on Unsplash.]
