How the Great Scientists Reasoned

Dedication

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction: Humanity’s Urge to Understand

2. Elements of Scientific Thinking: Skepticism, Careful Reasoning, and Exhaustive Evaluation Are All Vital

2.1 Science Is Universal

2.2 Maintaining a Critical Attitude

2.3 Reasoning

2.4 Evaluating Scientific Hypotheses

2.5 Science at the Frontier

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3. Christopher Columbus and the Discovery of the “Indies”: It Can Be Disastrous to Stubbornly Refuse to Recognize That You Have Falsified Your Own Hypothesis

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4. Antoine Lavoisier and Joseph Priestley Both Test the Befuddling Phlogiston Theory: Junking a Confusing Hypothesis May Be Necessary to Clear the Way for New and Productive Science

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5. Michael Faraday Discovers Electromagnetic Induction but Fails to Unify Electromagnetism and Gravitation: It Is Usually Productive to Simplify and Consolidate Your Hypotheses

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6. Wilhelm Röntgen Intended to Study Cathode Rays but Ended Up Discovering X-Rays: Listen Carefully When Mother Nature Whispers in Your Ear—She May Be Leading You to a Nobel Prize

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7. Max Planck, the First Superhero of Quantum Theory, Saves the Universe from the Ultraviolet Catastrophe: Assemble Two Flawed Hypotheses About a Key Phenomenon into a Model That Fits Experiment Exactly and People Will Listen to You Even if You Must Revolutionize Physics

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8. Albert Einstein Attacks the Problem “Are Atoms Real?” from Every Angle: Solving a Centuries-Old Riddle in Seven Different Ways Can Finally Resolve It

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9. Niels Bohr Models the Hydrogen Atom as a Quantized System with Compelling Exactness, but His Later Career Proves that Collaboration and Developing New Talent Can Become More Significant than the Groundbreaking Research of Any Individual

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10. Conclusions, Status of Science, and Lessons for Our Time

10.1 Conclusions from Our Biographies

10.2 What Thought Processes Lead to Innovation?

10.3 Is the Scientist an Outsider?

10.4 The Status of the Modern Scientific Enterprise

10.5 Lessons for Our Time

10.6 Can the Scientific Method Be Applied to Public Policy?

10.7 Why So Little Interest in Science?

10.8 Knowledge Is Never Complete

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