Discovery Awaits the Mind That Pursues It
Scientific insight often starts with a simple question: Is this idea worth pursuing? But when we’re staring at a half-formed thought, a scribbled note, or a spark of curiosity, it’s hard to know whether we’re looking at a breakthrough or a distraction. The problem is simple: we need…
Scientific discovery stalls when you stay in one lane. Instead, use scientific creativity to expand your intellectual movement so you can reach the off-ramps where breakthroughs actually live. Researchers love tidy labels. Experimentalist. Astrophysicist. Theorist. Biologist. These labels feel safe, like guardrails that keep us from embarrassment or overreach.…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
The idea of mapping information is heavily used and widely favored today. There are mind maps, geographical terrain maps, all manner of mathematical graphs to map relationships, and maps for “landscape analysis” used to summarize the state of the art in many fields. But it turns out that when…