How does a major breakthrough in science happen? Is it because noone has thought of it that way? Are there major breakthroughs in the future of medicine and technology because noone thought of it that way?
In: Technology
Breakthroughs are, in majority, problems we knew about for ages and even knew how we can solve them but didn’t have the means due to a deficiency in knowledge and/or technology. Every now and then, particularly in before the 21st century, we did have scientists think of concepts that no one ever thought about, or at least in a documented manner. But that’s really rare, and even when apparent completely novel ideas energy, like those of Einstein, yeah they were postulated way before his time, but they were neither proven mathematically nor experimentally. Many people think Einstein was a particularly unique scientist, sure he was incredibly intelligent and resourceful, but he happened to stumble upon just the right concepts in just the right time and used his intellect to put claims down as facts with mathematics and creative experimentation.
In biology, we also get such breakthroughs. Like when they first put forth germ theory. The guy who characterized the first virus, he thought it was a protein. Then he proved the concept of viruses exist, and that was such an alien concept at the time. The guy who characterized prions thought it was a virus at first, then he proved proteins can be pathogenic and transmissible. Then the guys that showed a bacterium can survive in the stomach and cause ulcers and cancer. All these guys were called crazy at some point, but they broke through the rigid concepts of previous science and caused a paradigm shift. But others had break through that were simply possible because technology finally permitted it. Others stumbled upon a phenomenon in another organism and were innovative enough to customize it for other uses like PCR or CRISPR Cas9.
So it’s a combination of things: creative unique ideas, innovative ways to use old ideas, challenging previous ideas, refitting already occurring phenomena to other uses, etc. But in general, the proportion of truly novel ideas is decreasing as science progresses. It may seem like we’ve explored all the major concepts in nature and few are left but the more likely thing is that we’re held prisoner by our current advancing knowledge, we’re stuck because we’re biased by already established concepts and preoccupied in trying to further elucidate those concepts. Not to mention the way funding works for research. Crazy ideas don’t get funding much, only safer bets are given money. But still, some professors spent their lives proving to the world they’re competent in what they do and at some point, if they’re at a rich university, they can get funding for the craziest of ideas because they established credibility. And such ideas so often pan out and produce truly novel results.
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