Nature Of Scientific Discovery Research Articles

Structural and functional evolution of the mechanosensory lateral line system of fishesa).

The mechanosensory lateral line system is the flow sensing system present in all 34 000+ species of fishes. Its neuromast receptor organs, located on the skin or in bony canals on the head and tubed scales on the trunk, respond to the near field component of acoustic stimuli as well as short range, low frequency (0-200 Hz) water flows of biotic and abiotic origin. Here, I discuss the genesis of my research career and its focus on the structural and functional evolution of the lateral line system among a wide taxonomic range of fishes including those from different aquatic habitats (tropical lakes to coral reefs and the deep sea). I discuss the importance of investigating structure before function, using investigations in my laboratory that had unexpected outcomes, as well as the role of serendipity in the evolution of a career and in the nature of scientific discovery.

Mythic forecasts: researcher portrayals of extraterrestrial life discovery

AbstractScientific discovery, especially at the boundaries of human observational capacity, is an extended, incremental and sometimes controversy-laden process; but practicing researchers' published statements do not always portray it as such. If extraterrestrial life (ETL) exists, and if we find it, the process of observation, interpretation, understanding and confirmation may take decades. Though it is, thus, likely that scientific consensus will accrue around an ETL interpretation in a gradual and subtle process, the general public and even practicing scientists often discuss ETL discovery as though it will be rapid and dramatic. To illustrate this phenomenon, this review analyses a convenience sample of astronomers', astrobiologists' and astrosociologists' statements and assumptions in scholarly and general-audience media regarding a prospective discovery of ETL. Of 30 surveyed scholarly studies and 37 surveyed general-audience pieces, 24 scholarly and scientists' perspectives in 32 general-audience pieces do not acknowledge the extended nature of scientific discovery; and only three and four, respectively, do so explicitly. These results suggest that ETL researchers' statements could often portray an inaccurate or at least atypical vision of scientific progress in their own studies and to general-audience media outlets.

On the Nature of Scientific Discovery and Progress – Lessons From a Career in Cancer Research

While there is a tendency for career scientists to focus throughout most of their careers on a quite narrow range of research topics, my experience over a period of more than 50 years has been broad, from carcinogenesis to diffusion theory. There have been times when intense work has been done on particular subjects, for example, in exploring the structure and function of primary cilia, now implicated in 40-50 medical disorders. Such experiences constantly inform one how best to approach difficult and often fundamental issues regarding the nature of life, and also how it becomes distorted in the development of cancer. The quest to know the basic difference between normal and malignant cells continues. In addressing these problems we also learn how little we know about such matters, and about the Universe, life and ourselves. I relate, in outline, many of the experiences I have had since they have taught me lessons about how to go about scientific and medical research and how to maintain an enthusiasm for the work. My aim here is to relate from a personal (highly subjective) viewpoint the issues that should help the reader to appreciate what is required to advance knowledge, and how to benefit from the little advice that I can offer regarding their future endeavours. Biomed Rev 2017; 28:111-119. Keywords: Eureka moment, scientific career, research experience, carcinogenesis, primary cilia, cell metabolism

Transforming Undergraduate Biology Education for All Students: An Action Plan for the Twenty-First Century

On July 15–17, 2009, 544 biology faculty from 2- and 4-year colleges and universities, along with researchers, administrators, students, and other educational stakeholders from around the country, met in Washington, DC, to help create a blueprint for the future of undergraduate biology education (Summers, 2009 ). Hosted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the meeting set out to mobilize the nation's undergraduate biology educators to ensure that the biology they teach in their classrooms reflects the biology they practice in the lab and field, and that all students—majors and nonmajors alike—gain a better understanding of the nature of science and the natural world (Mervis, 2009 ). The charge for the meeting (Transforming Undergraduate Education in Biology: Mobilizing the Community for Change) noted that the need for change reflects the radical changes in the science itself as well as the knowledge we are gaining about how people learn and the best ways to ensure that learning takes place. The meeting concentrated on how people have effected change, the results when they did so, and how the attendees and their colleagues could most effectively incorporate this knowledge and understanding into their own approaches to undergraduate education in biology. Videos, slides, and other materials from the meeting are posted at the conference website (AAAS, 2009a ). A culminating summary publication is anticipated in spring 2010.

Opportunities and Barriers in the Age of Team Science: Strategies for Success

To provide the voice of experience to investigators contemplating engagement in the realm of "team science". Leaders were brought together from academia, government, and industry to share perspectives and insights based on real-life experiences. A panel discussion was held at the 2005 annual meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research. This article summarizes that forum. The panel focused on eight specific topics that were determined in advance to be the most important: the main justification for team science, funding team science, pre-arranged versus assigned partnerships, the role of novel technology with industrial partners, recognition for efforts and contribution in team science, budgets, keys to success when bridging disciplines and cultures, and balancing goals between academia and business. Although there were some differences of opinion, there were also a number of areas of agreement. Many practical suggestions were provided on how to succeed in the age of team science. The nature of scientific discovery in cancer research is increasingly requiring team science. Understanding the perspectives of academia, government, and business in this new world order is essential to successful navigation and, ultimately, major accomplishment in the effort to defeat the disease.

Michael Polanyi and Jewish Identity

Michael Polanyi’s Jewish identity contributed to his philosophical outlook. His life in a Hungarian-acculturated, nonobservant Jewish family in the last decades of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; his experience as a Jew emigrating from Hitler’s Germany; and his thoughts about Zionism informed his theory of knowledge. During the late 1930s and 1940s, he worked to reconcile his Jewish identity with his commitments to Christianity, and this tension contributed to his thinking about the nature of scientific discovery. The malapropism baptized Jew characterizes the scientist on the verge of discovery, one who occupies a twilight world between adherence and apostasy with regard to the scientific community.

T. rex, the Crater of Doom, and the Nature of Scientific Discovery

Working from the 1970s to the early 1990s, Walter Alvarez and his research teamsought the cause of the mass extinction that claimed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. The present paper discusses thatresearch in terms of eight puzzling observations, eight episodes of hypothetico-predictive reasoning, enumerative induction,and Jung's interrogative theory of scientific discovery. The Alvarez case history paints scientific discovery as a process in whichcausal questions are raised and answered through the creative use of analogical reasoning followed by an equally creative process ofhypothesis testing in which predicted and observed results are compared. According to this account, puzzling observations, causalhypotheses, and imagined tests drive investigations and the search for evidence. Two implications follow. The firstconcerns the education of new scientists and science education researchers and the need to more clearlydifferentiate hypotheses from predictions in the research process. The second concerns standard science classroom instruction that shouldmore frequently engage students in open inquiries that raise causal questions and encourage the generation of alternative causalhypotheses, which can then be explicitly tested in ahypothetico-predictive fashion.

Curing cancer? Patrick Lee's path to the reovirus treatment

This article provides a historical, philosophical, and psychological analysis of the recent discovery that reoviruses are oncolytic, capable of infecting and destroying many kinds of cancer cells. After describing Patrick Lee's very indirect path to this discovery, I discuss the implications of this case for understanding the nature of scientific discovery, including the economy of research, anomaly recognition, hypothesis formation, and the role of emotion in scientific thinking. Lee's discoveries involved a combination of serendipity, abductive and deductive inference, and emotional cognition.

The scientists: an experiment in science teaching

In an attempt to provide school science students with an appreciation and understanding of the work of scientists and the nature of scientific discovery, a project called ‘The Scientists’ was set up. The project is concerned with the development of curriculum materials which include biographies of scientists, instruction manuals and materials for carrying out experiments. The scope and nature of this project are briefly described.

Functional Morphology as a Tool in General Education

SYNOPSIS. This paper explores the proposition that in morphology, or any other scientific subject, every statement is based on multiple assumptions already in our minds before we begin to teach or do research in the field. Progress in morphology is intimately related to its philosophical and historical foundations. Personalities, social pressures and cultural traditions also play major roles in the often complex and circuitous routes of scientific discovery. General education provides a foundation for understanding these many interactions. Morphology, itself, is a metaphor for inter-relatedness, and this metaphor can be used to explore general education in the broadest sense. Morphology is not only a body of knowledge and processes for producing that knowledge but also groups of people deciding on directions, collaborating on methods, and consulting on concepts. A morphologist is a member of a community of understanding in a culture composed of diverse and often conflicting influences. I suggest that exploring these issues is an important pedagogic tool for discovering and understanding the foundations of morphology as a scientific endeavor. This paper is appropriately dedicated to Professor Milton Hildebrand who understands well the interdisciplinary nature of scientific discovery.

Artificial Intelligence, Psychology, and the Philosophy of Discovery

In their contributions to this volume, Bruce Buchanan (1983) and Lindley Darden (1983) have provided compelling reasons why philosophers of science concerned with the nature of scientific discovery should be aware of current work in artificial intelligence. Buchanan presents abundant examples of the mechanization of generation of empirical hypotheses in current AI programs, while Darden, at a more speculative level, discusses the use of analogy in theoretical discovery. The implication of both these studies is that the philosophy of discovery can profitably borrow notions from work in artificial intelligence, since useful analogies can be found between problems in that field and the problems facing philosophers studying scientific discovery.I have no quarrel with this claim, except that it is too weak. I shall argue that work in AI is not only useful but essential for investigations in philosophy of science concerning discovery. The connecting link between the two fields is empirical cognitive psychology.

Creativity, discovery and science

Common misconceptions and correct concepts associated with science and those who practice it, and the nature of scientific discovery.

Renaissance and revolution

The Nature of Scientific Discovery. (A Symposium Commemorating the 500th Anniversary of the Birth of Nicolaus Copernicus.) Edited By Owen Gingerich. Pp. 616. (Smithsonian Institution: Washington, DC, 1975.) $15.