ACT OF DISCOVERY
Creative minds at work
The following makes the second instilment of Dr. M Ali Asgar's original article titled "Establishment of an Interactive science discovery centre in Asia-Pacific region."
IF one would be able to look into the mind of a discoverer at the moment of discovery, one could see that the finding out of unknown facts and the origin of great generalizations are not mechanical process to be achieved by the punctual study of other peoples work.
Although the discovery of a new fact, law, relationship process or device is generally based on existing knowledge, it never follows directly by any usual logical process. This is because we never have all the ncessary data and can not simplify our problem sufficiently to apply the method of existing reasoning. If that would be the case, it would not be a scientific problem. As we come to know from the creative people like Alfred Goldsmith, Irving Longmuir. Henri Poincare or Albert Einstein that intuition and inspiration play the most important role in creativity. According to Einstein, imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution and this is the real factor in scientific research.
Longmuir stressed the importance of developing receptive mind which could accept a new idea engenedered by a fortunate accident, an unexpected occurrence or some other set of circumstances generally beyond the control of the individual. This benefited, but emphasized the futility of making formal plans in the effort to obtain new ideas. Helmholtz got his inspiration when resting often in the morning, and not when his mind was fatigued or when he was at his working table. For Edison the key to successful methods come right but of the air, as if a real new idea was pulled out of space like a beautiful melody.
To be continued
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