Byrd Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Neither of the examples you posit is the way
> science is done.
>
> The "scientific method" is an easily-graspable
> model that we can teach to students to have them
> do the work in a systematic way. It's easily
> replicable for experiments where we know the
> outcome. It's only done in a learning
> environment.
>
> "Flash of light" is a bad term, because the person
> with the achievement leap has done a huge amount
> of background work in the field. I could have a
> "flash of light" insight about lightweight
> aircraft or power grids, but that doesn't mean
> that my idea would be original or even useful or
> plausible.
>
> In a field where I've done a lot of reading and
> some work the results would be different. If I
> had a flash of insight saying that I could apply
> Cayley trees in studying a "social-based small
> worlds network" on an "information grounds" to
> model information exchange behaviors (one of my
> more recent flashes of light, actually), then
> several things occur:
> * I know where to look for additional information
> and corroborating evidence/papers/experiments
> * I know how to design a method of verifying the
> information and whether or not I need a null
> hypothesis or a different measurement.
> * I know how to create a valid research question
> (something that can be measured and actually done
> - doing a "scientific method" doesn't work when
> you're studying communications between human
> beings.)
> * I know who to check with to make sure it isn't a
> Flash of Stupid instead of a Flash of Light and
> whose suggestions can improve my research.
>
> Everyone's seen apples fall... but only Newton
> knew enough about mathematics and planetary motion
> to make a valid link that advanced science.


It seems to me with your concluding sentence that you've made a strong case for the blazing insight. In this case Newton saw an apple fall from the tree and pulled gravity together. Centuries later Einstein heard of a man whose elevator broke and after surviving the crash said he had no sense of falling at all....Einstein then had a supernova insight and out popped the special theory of relativity and then years later the general theory. Until that moment they were a pair of super talented number crunchers after that they became megastars.