Scientific discoveries typically begin with basic laboratory research followed by transition to clinical care of the patient. To improve human health, scientific discoveries must be translated into practical aplications. This approach is a 2-way street. Basic scientists can provide clinicians with new tools for patient care, and clinical observations on the nature and progression of disease can...

Why do members of the public share some scientific findings and not others? What can scientists do to increase the chances that their findings will be shared widely among nonscientists? To address these questions, we integrate past research on the psychological drivers of interpersonal communication with a study examining the sharing of hundreds of recent scientific discoveries. Our findings of...

development and testing of interdisciplinary hypotheses can lead to our most profound scientific discoveries. Thus, even though significant challenges in deciphering the molecular pathways involved in cellular functions and disorders of the gastrointestinal organs remain, enhancing and testing hypotheses with considerations of the integrated responses that occur in the system and applying inter...

We propose an explanatory and computational theory of transformative discoveries in science. The theory is derived from a recurring theme found in a diverse range of scientific change, scientific discovery, and knowledge diffusion theories in philosophy of science, sociology of science, social network analysis, and information science. The theory extends the concept of structural holes from soc...

On rare occasions in the history of science, remarkable discoveries transform human society and forever alter mankind's view of the world. Examples of such discoveries include the heliocentric theory, Newtonian physics, the germ theory of disease, quantum theory, plate tectonics and the discovery that DNA carries genetic information. The science philosopher Thomas Kuhn famously described scienc...

Chance and accidents play important roles in scientific discoveries, but they are not blind luck. Serendipity is not merely stumbling on things unsought for, it is the ability to see significances and find values in the things stumbled upon. Without this ability, accidents do not lead to discoveries, as Pasteur observed: “Chance favors the prepared mind.” What are the characteristics of a prepa...