Description
How do we spark new scientific discoveries? How can we accelerate new breakthroughs in science? These are some of the biggest unsolved questions in science. Many believe that discoveries arise by chance or serendipity. The Engine of Scientific Discovery illustrates, for the first time, how we can actively speed up the pace of new breakthroughs by developing better methods and tools of discovery which enable us to see and think in entirely new ways. New tools are the lenses through which we discover what we often did not even know existed: improved microscopes uncovered microorganisms and viruses, x-ray methods exposed the structure of DNA, particle accelerators detected subatomic particles, and advanced telescopes revealed galaxies. This book explores science's biggest discoveries--spanning all Nobel Prize discoveries and over 200 other major discoveries. The findings are striking: science's over 750 major discoveries have been triggered by first developing a new method or instrument that made the breakthrough possible. In fact, most discoveries are now uncovered within just a few years after designing the needed tool. This pattern reveals how our transformative new tools are The Engine of Scientific Discovery--a fundamental principle of scientific progress overlooked until now. By shifting our attention to inventing new tools as the key to advancing new breakthroughs, we can spark a methodological revolution in science. Instead of waiting for breakthroughs, we can actively design and build new tools of discoveries. What if the next great breakthroughs depend not just on asking better questions, but developing better tools to ask and answer them--on entirely new ways of discovering? A new theory of discovery emerges, offering a roadmap for accelerating progress across science.
Table of Contents
IntroductionPART I THE DRIVERS OF SCIENCE AND DISCOVERY1. Sparking Discovery: How New Methods and Tools Trigger Science's Major Breakthroughs2. Engineering Serendipity: How New Tools Make Unexpected Discoveries Possible—and Highly Likely3. Revolutionary Paradigm Shifts or Cumulative Progress?: Rethinking Scientific Progress and the Scientific Methods4. Discovery-Makers: How Younger Age, Interdisciplinary Education and Resources Can Support Discoverers and Our New Cutting-Edge Tools5. The Birth of Fields: How New Methods and Tools Launch New Disciplines6. The Discovery Engine: How We Invent the Powerful Methods and Tools of Discovery—and a New Field: The Methodology of SciencePART II THE ORIGINS AND FOUNDATIONS OF SCIENCE AND DISCOVERY7. The Origins of Our Toolbox: How Our Mind's Method-Making Abilities Have Driven Science—and Civilisation8. Homo Methodologicus: How Our Unique Evolved Method-Making Species Became Problem Solvers and Knowledge Creators9. The New Methods-Driven Discovery Theory: Five Lenses on How Tools Power SciencePART III THE PRESENT LIMITS AND FUTURE OF SCIENCE AND DISCOVERY10. The Edge of Discovery: How the Boundaries of Our Toolbox Set the Current Boundaries of Science11. Pushing the Limits of Science: How We Accelerate New Discoveries by Extending Our Powerful ToolboxAcknowledgementsReferencesIndex
