The Aha! Effect and Scientific Discovery
There are several examples of scientific discoveries being made due to a sudden flash of insight. One of the key insights in developing his special theory of relativity came to Albert Einstein while talking to his friend Michele Besso:
| “ | I started the conversation with him in the following way: "Recently I have been working on a difficult problem, today I come here to do battle against that problem with you" We discussed every aspect of this problem. Then suddenly I understood where the key to this problem lay. Next day I came back to him again and said to him without even saying hello, "thank you. I've completely solved the problem" | ” |
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—Albert Einstein, How I created the theory of relativity |
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However, Einstein also said that the whole idea of special relativity did not come to him as a sudden, single thought, like a eureka moment: "Actually, I was led to it by steps arising from the individual laws derived from experience." Similarly, Carl Friedrich Gauss said after a eureka moment: "I have the result, only I do not yet know how to get to it."
Sir Alec Jeffreys had a eureka moment in his lab in Leicester after looking at the X-ray film image of a DNA experiment at 9:05 am on Monday 10 September 1984, which unexpectedly showed both similarities and differences between the DNA of different members of his technician's family. Within about half an hour, he realized the possible scope of DNA fingerprinting, which uses variations in the genetic code to identify individuals. The method has become important in forensic science to assist police detective work, and it has also proved useful in resolving paternity and immigration disputes. The method can also be applied to non-human species, for example in wildlife population genetics studies. Before his methods were commercialised in 1987, his laboratory was the only centre carrying out DNA fingerprinting in the world.
Read more about this topic: Eureka Effect
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