The end of the 19th century was the starting point of many discoveries in the field of the neurophysiology. At that time, only basic technical approaches were available, and new discoveries depended on few results and lots of deductions. Furthermore, the scientific community was often debating on theoretical speculations and was often divided. I have chosen to present a German neurophysiologist...

The tale of a lame, one-eyed, toothless camel 1 may not, at first glance, seem an auspicious start for ground-breaking discoveries of penicillin, X-rays and chocolate chip cookies. However, when Horace Walpole coined the word serendipity in 1754, based on the tale of ‘The Three Princes of Serendip’ and the aforementioned camel, he was giving name to the accidental sagacity (i.e. accidental wisd...

Scientific objective: In a recent blog post Dr Andrew Thorburn 1asks why many published discoveries cannot be replicated. He summarizes examples from Dr Glenn Begley (Vice President for oncology at Amgen) that show how Amgen has been unable to reproduce many high-profile discoveries. Dr Thorburn raises the possibility that ‘sloppy science’ may partly explain our inability to measurably improve ...

To improve human health, scientific discoveries must be translated into practical applications. Inherent in the development of these technologies is the role of preclinical testing using animal models. Although significant insight into the molecular and cellular basis has come from small animal models, significant differences exist with regard to cardiovascular characteristics between these mod...

The theoretical stance explicated in this chapter assumes that scientific discoveries often require that the problem solver (either the scientist or the inventor) re-conceptualizes the problem in a way that crosses ontological categories. Examples of the highest level of ontological categories are entities, processes, and mental states. Discoveries might be explained as the outcome of the proce...

The biggest challenges mankind ever faces are falling energy sources and food shortages. If controlled nuclear fusion were achieved with net energy yield, the energy source problem would be solved. If natural photosynthesis were reproduced, food shortage concern would be addressed. Though both nuclear fusion and photosynthesis are universal, the difficulties to achieve them are disproportionall...

I n 1971, a paper published in PNAS (1) helped jump-start the era of modern molecular biology and biotechnology, eventually giving rise to many of the genetic advances that seem so commonplace today. The article, written by Academy member Daniel Nathans and his then graduate student, Kathleen Danna, exposed the marvelous utility of restriction enzymes. In the accompanying Perspective highlighti...

We have developed and tested an evidence-based method for early-stage identification of scientific discoveries. Scholarly publications are analyzed to track and trace breakthrough processes as well as their impact on world science. The focus in this study is on the incremental discovery of the ubiquitin-mediated proteolytic system in the late 1970s by a small international team of collaborating...

The past 15 years have provided an unprecedented collection of discoveries that bear upon our scientific understanding of recovery of consciousness in the human brain following severe brain damage. Highlighted among these discoveries are unique demonstrations that patients with little or no behavioral evidence of conscious awareness may retain critical cognitive capacities and the first scienti...

226 words): ‘Serendipity’ is a category used to describe discoveries in science that occur at the intersection of chance and wisdom. In this paper, I argue for understanding serendipity in science as an emergent property of scientific discovery, describing an oblique relationship between the outcome of a discovery process and the intentions that drove it forward. The recognition of serendipity ...