It's a moment of pure excitement, pure emotion. As a young scientist, Joel Cohen took a gamble to explore a way to model ecological communities. Others get streaks of insight when they let their brains take a breather. Another Nobel winner, physicist Richard Feynman, launched studies of quantum dynamics after absentmindedly watching a student in a Cornell University cafeteria toss a wobbling plate into the air. Rockefeller University biologist Joel Cohen dreamed up a way to model ecological communities while half asleep early one morning.
Similar stories abound.
Victoria Knutson suggests discoverers focus on fitting small findings within broad theories. The light goes off. When all those pieces connect, it all works out. Discoverers rarely find something totally new. Instead, they see the ordinary in a new light.