Scientists frequently talk about the ways that they make discoveries and tell two main types of stories. One is of flashes of insight and chance occurrences that resulted in spontaneous discoveries. The other is of an incremental approach that slowly led to a discovery. Both types of stories give interesting and sometimes illuminating insights into the cognitive machinery underlying the creative scientific mind. Unfortunately, scientists forget details of what really happened in a discovery and often erroneously reconstruct the events leading up to a discovery. Furthermore, even detailed lab notes fail to reveal the full range of mental processes that were used in a discovery. Thus, to uncover what it is that scientists really do it is important to investigate scientists "live" as they think and reason in their laboratories.

Hosted by: The Center for Advanced Study

In conjunction with: Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, Biotechnology Center, Campus Honors Program, Department of Biochemistry, Department of Cell and Structural Biology, Department of Chemical Engineering, Department of Chemistry, Department of Crop Sciences, Department of Educational Psychology, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department of Entomology, Department of Molecular and Integrative Biology, Department of Psychology, Institute of Communication Research, Medical Scholars Program, Neuroscience Program, Program for the Study of Science, Technology, Information and Medicine (STIM), School of Integrative Biology