The Discovery Process and the Creative Mind
A. B. Garrett Ohio State University Columbus
The fabulous is never anything but the commonplace touched by the hand of the genius," writes Boris Pasternak in an historic observation in his book "Dr. Zhivago" (1). Of that genius and the flash of genius I want to direct this discussion (3). If you were to ask an administrator in a secondary school todav for a list of the most creative students in that ~chool,"~ou would no doubt be told that they have no such record on their students. But they probably do have records of students in terms of -aptitud& intelligence, reading, and retaining. Probably your most certain method of obtaining a list of creative students is to ask for a list of the brig&st students and other list of the orneriest; then make your choice of potentially creative students from those names that are common to each list! This does not mean that a youngster must be ornery in order to be creative-his orneriness is probably the result of the inadequacy of most of our school systems (kindergarten through college) to maintain-an effective for creative minds. This is a place of concern for identification of the genius. . .. If vou thmk back over vour teaching ex~erience(or perhaps your experience as a student), you will recall, maybe only dimly now, five identifiable ingredients, in one sequence or guise-this collection, in common parlance, has been called the scientific method. These ingredients may be stated in over-simplified terms
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Being informed Being organized Being creative Being objective Being flexible
The success of science and technology is normally attributed to the tough-minded part of the process called by any of the various names-testing, experimentation, or just being objective. This has been a Dowerful tool to selectFon, -refinement, and perfectfion of ideas ill science. Hut the my.itrrious, least undcrstood, lrast explored, and most neglected ingretlicl~t1.; the rhinl
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The 1964 American Chemical Society Award in Chemical Education sponsored by the Laboratory ~ p p a r a t u sand Optical Sections of the Scientific Apparatus Makers Association was presented to Alfred B. Garrett a t the 147th National Meetine of the ACS a t Philadelphia, April 1964. Prof. Garrett is Vice president of The Ohio Stttte University and farmer chairman of the Department of Chemistry. The award address published here was a feature of the banquet meeting of the Division of Chemical Education held s t the University of Pennsylvania.
ingredient, involviug creativity-there is where the flash of genius appears; there is where the creative mind is so necessary. This is a place of concern for a better understanding of the creative process-that trigger-tripping step that makes possible the flash of genius. As an approach to these two concerns-the identification of the genius and the process of creativity-let us review several cases of discovery (9) to search for any clues that may be useful in understanding the discovery process. Charles Mariin Hall and the Discovery of the Method of Metallurgy of Aluminum
Here is the description that Professor Jewett gave of Hall and his work (3). My grcat discovery has been the discovery of a man. When I went to Oberlin in 1880, on my return from four years' teaching in Janan, there was a little bov about 16 years old who used to come toihechemioal laboratory irequently t o buy a. few cents worth of glass tubing or test tubes or something of that sort and go offwith them. He would come again after a while t o get some more things to work with. Not knowing anything about the buy, I made up my mind that he would make a mark for himself some day because he didn't spend all his time playing but was already investigating. That boy was Charles M. Hall, the man who, a t the sge of 21, discovered the met,hod reducing aluminum from its ores and making it the splendid metal that we now see used all over the world. Hall wm an all-round student, but he did have a special liking for science. After he had entered collegeand was part way through the regular course, I took him into my private laboratory and gave him a place by my side-discussing his problems with him from day t o day. Passibly a remark of mine in the laboratory one day led him to turn his special attention to aluminum. Speaking to my students, I said that if anyone should invent a process by which aluminum could be made on a commercial scale, not only would be be a benefactor to the world but would also be able t o lay up far himself 8 great fortune. Turning to a classmate, Charles Hall said, "I'm going for that metal." And he went for it. He tried various methods invain, and finally turned his mind to the idea that pperhapselectricity would help get the metal out of its ores. So he foeusad his attention on that process. I loaned him what apparatus I had to spare, what batteries we could develop. And I think that most of you who have seen an electric battery would have laughed a t the one we got up-made as i t was out of all sorts of cups, tumblers, and so on, with pieces of carbon in them. But we finally got the current that was needed. Soon after this he was graduated and took the appsratus to his own home, apparatus which he himself made and which I hsd loaned him. He arranged a little laboratory in the shed, continued his investigation and reported t o me frequently. About six months later he came over to my oEee one morning and holdine" out his hollowed hand said: "Professor. I've eat it? ' 'l'ltwr. in 8 1 . 6 , pllm c i hi, 1,:jn.l hy a d..mn Illllc g l ~ . l ~ofl l ~ ~ nluwirum, r l fmt ~ PWI. mtd* I,? 11." t ~ h ~11,.~ pv ~ scrw. ~ r ~ Tnir d ~ 11w 2.0.11 d I:l.Im~~~.y, I \ \ & Af1t.r II.:LIIle ilcvel ,pt,d I.i.2 Invention t o its final great success. Volume 41, Number 9, September 7 964
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H. 1. Johnston and the Discovery of the Isotopes of Oxygen
Johnston was doing his doctoral thesis research with Prof. William Giaugue on the thermodyna~nics of oxygen. He needed spectroscopic data on oxygen from which to calculate entropy values. Just previous to this time a paper had appeared on the "Absorption Spectra of Oxygen in the Earth's Atmosphere" (6) in which the authors described their success in interpreting most of the lines in the spectra hut concluded, "There is still a srnaii number of unclassified faint lines of atmospheric origin, but it is not certain whether they belong to these bands. They may be due to water vapor." This became the clue for Giauqne and Johnston to make their discovery; here are excerpts from their careful analysis of these data of Dieke and Babcock (4 5) : In connection with our study of the entropies of gases we have recently considered the available spectroscopic data for oxygen. The atmospheric absorption bands of oxygen contain the necessary information concerning the rotation levels of the oxygen molecule but we found that no completely satisfactory interpretation of these bands has been given. . . Our principal problem was to decide whether the A and the A' bands originated from a. common source or not. We tried many ways of combining the lines both within the strong A and the weak A' bands, respectively, and also combining weak with strong hut could find no scheme that would account for the hands arising from a. single molecular form. I t occurred to us that the A' band mieht result from an isotone
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viuusly been observed but its existence in small amount has certainly not been disproved. Since it is of practically the same mass ns water. it miebt - easily be misinterpreted in a mass soectrov ~ h . We are thus forced to conclude that an isotope of oxygen, mass 18, exists in the earth's atmosphere.
Ernest Rutherford and the Discovery of the Concepl of the Nuclear Atom
He described (7) how he got the idea of the nuclear atom (8) as follows: . . . We now turn to consider the question of atomic structure. In 1896 Lennmd made a. famous experiment in which he passed electrons through a thin window in the discharge tube where they were made, and was able to observe them outside the tube. Since the electrons could penetrate the windows so easily he concluded that the atoms in the window must have a.very open structure and have comparatively large spaces between them. He suggested that the atoms might contain a, sphere of positive electricity associated somehow with negative charges. A year or two later, J. J. Thomsan elaborated this ides, and calculated how negative electrons would distribute themselves throughout a sphere of positive charge. He was able to explain in this way the fundamental nature of the periodic table. Now I myself wasvery interested in the next stage, so I willgive you it in some detail, and I would like to use t,he example to show how you often stumble upon facts by accident. In the early days I had observed the scattering of a-particles, and Dr. Geiger in my laboratory has examined it in detail. He found, in then pieces of heavy metal, that the scattering w3s usually small, of the order of one degree. One day Geiger came to me and said, "Don't you think that young Mamden, whom I am training in radioactive methods, ought to begin a small research?" Now I had thought that toa,.so I said, "Why not let him see if any a-particles can be scattered through a large angle?" I may tell you in confidence that I did not believe they would be, since we knew that the a-nartiole was a verv fast massive nartiele. with a, ereat deal of mcrfy, .lud )ou could sl,mv 11,:iI if I l w 4 ~ 1 1 ~ r 1 1n.15 1g ~ I I C to rhc wcutnultlted cffrct of n ntrubrr t i ar>~t.ll~..uttt.rirlgitie d.nnc:c of :m n-p1r1t1Iv'.r l r ~ n ~ g a t t r r c Jb:,vkwsrrls wnr w r y 61~tsI..'l%en
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I remember two or three days later Geiger coming to me in great excitement and saying, "We have been able to get some of the rrpwticles coming backwards. ." I t was quite the most incredible event that has ever happened to me in my life. I t was almost as incredible as if you fired s. 15-inch shell at a piece of tissue paper and it came back and hit you. On consideration I realized that thk scattering backwards must be the result of a single collision, and when I made calculations I saw that it was impossible to get anything of that order of magnitude unless you took a svstem in which the erester nast of the mase of the atom
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George deHevesy and the Discovery of the Use of Radio Tracers
Hevesy tells his story as follows (9) : Ernest (later Lord) Rutherford, then in Manchester, simultaneously with the discovery of the nucleus of the atom and the study of its properties, was inter-ted in other investigations. Among those investigations was a study of the velocity and absorption of @-particles. Radium Demits very soft 6-rays, and the investigation of the properties of the latter required a strong preparatlon of the radioactive material. Rutherford's institute had appreciable amounts of radium D a t their disposal; however, it was mixed with large amounts of lead. A iew hundred kilograms of lead chloride containing appreciable amounts of radium D ohtained from pitchblend were presented to Rutherford by the Austrian Government which a t that time, owned the only uranium mine-Joachimsthal in Bohemia. The lead chloride was stored in the cellar of the institute. One day when I met Rutherford in the cellar, he suggested that if I were worth my salt, I should separate radium D from all that nuisance of lead. Being a. young man, I was an optimist and fully convinced that I would succeed; but even though I worked very hard far a year, trying a large number of separations, I failed entirely. To make the best of this depressing situation, I decided to make use of the inseparability of radium D from lead. By adding pure radium D of known activity to 1 mg of lead nitrate, the lead present in that compound could he labeled, and its path followed through chemical reactions with the aid of radioactive measurements. In 1912, I was spending Christmas a t my parent's home in Budapest. I wrote to Dr. Paneth, then an assistant at the Vienna Institute of Radium Research, whom I had met a few weeks earlier when visiting there. I proposed to him that we jointly determine the tlolubility of sparingly soluble lead sulfides and lead chromates by labeling them with radium D which was rsvailahle in large amounts and pure condition at the Vienna Institute. The radon formed by decay of radium was pumped off each week, the radium D in turn wns available as a decay product of this radon. We started our joint investigations with Paneth early in January, 1913, followed by other applications of labeled lead and labeled bismuth in problems of inorganic and electrochemistry. anorganische Our first paper was published in 1913 in Zeit~chr2fjtr Chemie (10).
Roy Plunkett and the Discovery of Teflon
Dr. Plunkett describes his discovery (11) of the polymer now named Teflon. During the summer of 1938, while I was a. research chemist at the Jackson Laboratory, of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Penns Grove, New Jersey, I was carrying our research studies in the preparation of fluorochlorohydrocarbons. Far the ~olutionof one of my problems, I was interested in a supply of tetrafluoroethylene. Up until this time tetrafluoroethylene had been made only in very small quantities in laboratory studies. I desired to have up to 100 pounds of this material. .After wn.yit8g slut sorlcc Isborntory c~perimpnta,I devised a piltjr plutlt praccns far producing rhc rl4rpd qual.tities of tcirsduur~.ru.\lcw frorn d ~ r h l o r o t ~ t r ~ ~ f I ~ ~ c ~ r ~The ~ e ~ Itctrnfluoru~:~ne. ethylene \as placed in cylinders and stored in a cold storage box cooled with solid carbon dioxide. My further research involved the research of tetrafluoroethylene with other chemicals to produce novel compounds.
One day with the aid o I my helper, Jack Rebok, I was vapurising tetrafluoroethylene with s small cylinder wbich had contained approximately 2 pounds of tetrafluoroethylene. The gaseous tetrafluoroethylene which emerged from a cylinder located on a. platform scale was passed through flow meters and then led into the reacting chambers where the tetrafluoroethylene was to be reached with other chemicals. On this particular day, soon after the experiment started my helper called to my attention that the Bow of tetrafluoroethylene had stopped. I checked the weight of the cylinder and found that it still contained a. sizeable quantity of material which I thought to be tetrafluoroethylene. I opened the valve completely and ran a wire through the valve opening but no gas escaped. When I shook the cylinder and found there was some solid material inside, I then removed the valve and was able to pour the white powder from the cylinder. Finally, with the aid of a hack saw, the cylinder was opened and a considerably greater quantity of white powder was obtained. It was obvious immediately to me that the tetrafluoroethylene had polymerized and the white powder was a. polymer of tetrs, fluoroethvlene. Other Examples (2)
The Discovery of the Vulcanization of Rubber. Charles Goodyear was the son of a hardware merchant; he became interested in finding a method of making pure rubber strong and useful. One day, in 1839, while he was working with a mixture of rubber and sulfur, he accidently dropped it on or touched a cloth coated with it to a hot stove. He noticed that it charred without melting; it stretched and snapped back to its original shape; it did not become brittle when cooled. This let to the process of improving the property of pure rubber by heating it with sulfur, which is called uulcanization. This was a trial and error procedure but the discovery was accidental. The Discovery of Radium. Marie Curie had come to Paris from Poland to do her graduate work in 1896. Professor Becquerel had just discovered that a strange radiation from a uranium ore would affect a photographic plate. He, in turn, had observed that this girl was an excellent research worker. He asked her whether, for her Doctor's degree problem, she would be willing to analyze this ore and find out what there was in it that caused it to produce streaks in photographic plates. Marie Curie, together with her husband, Pierre, planned a systematic method of dissolving the ore, then separating and testing one group of components after another. After careful work they finally found that the unknown substance which affected the photographic plates was precipitated with the group of elements called calcium, strontium, and barium. By careful separation they found that the unknown substance was precipitated with the element barium. They tested pure barium and found that it did not give off radiations. They reasoned that the precipitate must contain, as an impurity, a new element similar to barium After careful and painstaking work they isolated the new element, polonium, and somewhat later, the element radium. This discovery was by planned research by the process of elimination, The Discovery of Lead Tetraethyl. I n 1919 three young engineers, Thomas Midgely, T. A. Boyd, and C. A. Hochwalt, were given the problem of finding something which could he added to gasoline to prevent it from "knocking." They set up a test engine in their laboratory and proceeded to test each material that they could find that was soluble in gasoline.
After many tests by trial aud error they found several compounds that would prevent knocking. One of the best of these was a con~poundof selenium, called selenium oxychloride. Following this wasdiethyl tellurium, which was found to be several times better than any discovered up to that time. Now their work shifted from a trial-and-error procedure to planned research. They and their fellow workers planned a systematic study of the antiknock properties of compounds of elements on the basis of the position of the elements in the periodic table and concentrated their attention on the elements near selenium and tellurium. After many tests they found that lead tetraethyl, was an excellent antiknock agent. That was the discovery that led t o "ethyl" gasoline. The early part of this research was by trial and error, and the latter part planned research. The Discovery of Atomic Fission. I n the late 1930's several researches were in progress in an effort to make transuranium elements. I n this work uranium was bombarded with neutrons in attempts to make the neutrons enter the nucleus of uranium. But the cheinical tests which they used in a n attempt to identify the new element indicated that the element barium was formed which is only a little over half as heavy as uranium. As Lisa Meitner sought for an explanation it occurred to her, "If we assume that the neutron causes the atom to split and form fragments about half as heavy as uranium the results can be accounted for." The birth of this idea of the interaction of neutrons with uranium-235 led to the great era of atomic fuels and atomic energy. This was discovered by accident hut associated with planned research on another problenr.
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How Does It Happen?
And now for clues to an understanding to the triggertripping process: The discoveries can be grouped generally into three classes: trial and error, planned research, and accident, with perhaps a fourth category of the Priestly-type which may be described as "let's do some experiments and see what happens." The first two groups are relatively easy to explain. Discovery by trial and error should result if we can do enough experiments and, better yet, if the intuition of the experimenter leads him to select the key experiments. Discovery by planned research can be explained as resulting from the pattern appearing in the data, for example, the theory of ionization and the periodic law; or by the process of elin~inatiou,for example, the isolation of polonium and radium. Rut how can we explain discovery by accident? This is our real challenge! As we search for clues to this explanation, we find two important factors. The first is in a statement by Pasteur: "Chance favors the prepared mind." Running throughout all cases that may be chosen for study is evidence of a prepared mind. The second is the mysterious factor of serendipity.' The prepared mind factor should explain those cases where "the researcher sees what's there, when it is there, and he is looking for it." But we need to couple with the prepared mind the element of serendipity "to see what is there, when it is there, when we are not looking See "The Flash of Genius," (8)p. 3 and Appendix I for a discussion of serendipity. Volume 41, Number 9, September 1964
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for it." This appears to he an essential factor for the truly creative minds. It might well be that an important method of cultivating creative minds would include those methods and processes involved in training in serendipity. Much more attention must be given t o studies in the creative process-we don't have the final answer yet (16). And now let us turn to the problem of identifying the creative minds. Here, too, the problem is unsolved. The best that has been done is t o identify several factors that form a profile of the creative mind (9,19-14). These include the following: They are intellectually curious. They are flexible. They recognize problems snd define them clemly. They can put information together in several waytys. They seek recognition and praise. They are antiauthoritarian and unorthodox (problem: haw t o handle the pseudo or beatnik.) They are mentally restless, intense, and strongly motivated. Thev are hiehlv intellieent. a hey are goal &ientedlnot method oriented. They probably showed these characteristics early in life.
This profile is supported by conclusions drawn from a six-year study by D. W. MacKinnon a t the University of California who states (14):
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.There are many paths along which persons travel toward the full development and expression of their creative potential, and . .there is no sin& mold into which d l who are creative will fit. The full and complete picturing of the creative person will require many images. But if, despite this caution, one still insists on aaking what mast generally characterizes the creative individual as he has revealed himself in the Berkeley studies, it is his high level of effective intelligence, his openness to experience, his freedom from crippling restrains and impoverishing inhibitions, his esthetic sensitivity, his cognitive flexibility, his inde~endencein thoueht and action. his hieh level of ersrttive enerev.
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Conclusion
Even though we do not yet fully comprehend the creative process nor can we readily identify the creative minds by testing, nevertheless we are convinced that the creative mind is one of the world's most important products. By it man has made remarkable progress toward realizing the three objectives of man, the intellectual: To interpret the universe-the objective of science; To find how man can live most effectively in the universe be has learned to intermet-the obieetive of the social sciences and the humanities; To find how man can communicate this information to his fellow men-the objective of the communicative a r t e t b e oral and written ward, mathematics, art, music, poetry, drama, and symbolic logic.
Whether we understand the trigger-tripping step a t t,he moment may he immaterial except that, in its
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understanding, our efforts in the discovery process are made more efficient. The progress in science is a great commentary on the mind of man that has demonstrated capacity to solve these great problems in the physical and biological world-this is the work of the truly creative mind. With this demonstrated capacity and creativity we see implications and much evidence of a mental potential that can also solve the great social problems in the world. As we are lured back to speculate about the clue that may lead to an explanation of what releases the flash of genius that can lead man to a better understanding of his universe we are led to these-"Chance favors the prepared mind7'-"Learn t o see in the experience or the experiment the unexpected." I n each discovery there must be a clue to an understanding of the creative process. Even though we do not understand clearly the road we have traveled in that idea-world of discovery we have great faith in the results of the discovery process which give us an ever-growing edge of new ideas and new revelations. This is the great driving force of man the intellectual. Literature Cited (1) P A ~ ~ R N BORIS, A K , "Dr. Zhivzgo," Pantheon, New Yark, 1958. (2) GARRETT,A. R., "The Flmh of Genius," D. Van Nostrand Co., Inc., Prineet,on, N. J., 1963. See also the individual account.? which appeared in the series entitled "Flash of Volumes 39 (1962) tlnd 40 Genius" in THIS JOURNAL, (1963). (3) HOLMES,HARRYN., "Fifty Yes18 of Industrial Aluminum," Bullet,in of Oherlin College, New Series No. 346, Oberlin, Ohio, August 30, 1937. (4) G~AUQUE, W. F., AND JOHNSTON, H. L.,J. Am. Chem. Sac., 51, 1436 (1929). (5) GIAUQUE,W. F., AND JOANSTON, H. L.,J . Am. Chem. Soe., 51,3528 (1929). H. D., Pmc. mat. Aead. Sci., (6) DIEKE, G. H., AND BABCOCK, 13,676 (1927). (7) From a lecture given by Lord Rutherford a t Cambridge University in the series given by ten scientists on the "Background of Modern Science" in 1936. Edited and prepared for press by J. A. RATCLIFFE,The Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge. The two lectures given by Rutherford were "The History of Radioactivity" and "The Development of the Theory of Atomic Structure." This excerpt was taken verbatim from the lecture, then edited and published in the book "Background to Modern Science," The Mrtcmillan Co., 1938, pp. 67-9. (8) RUTHERFORD, SIRERNEST, Phil.Mag., 21 669 (1911). G., Persons1 communication. (9) DE HEVESY, . 82, 223 (1913). (10) DE HEVESY,G., 2. A m ~ gChem., R., Personal communication. (11) PLUNKEIT, (12) BROWN, ALFRED E., Chem. Eng. News,39,102 (1960). (13) Ow, EMIL,Chem. Eng. News,33,2319 (1955). W., Saturday Review, February 10, (14) MACKINNIN,DONAT,D 1962., D. 15 ff. (15) PIUINES,SIDNEYJ., AND HARDING, HAROLD F., "A Source Book for Creative think in^," Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1962
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