Creativity for scientists and engineers [electronic resource] : a practical guide / Dennis Sherwood.

All scientists and engineers are creative -- you wouldn't be a scientist or engineer if you weren't. But can you be even more creative? Do you know how to develop creativity in those who are less confident? And how to build a team culture in which creativity flourishes? If those questions spark inte...

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Bibliographic Details
Uniform Title:IOP ebooks. 2022 collection.
Main Author: Sherwood, Dennis (Author)
Corporate Author: Institute of Physics (Great Britain) (Publisher)
Language:English
Published: Bristol [England] (No.2 The Distillery, Glassfields, Avon Street, Bristol, BS2 0GR, UK) : IOP Publishing, [2022]
Series:IOP ebooks. 2022 collection.
Subjects:
Creative ability in science.
Creative ability in technology.
Online Access:
IOP eBooks 2022 Collection: 2022 (IOPscience @ Institute of Physics)
Variant Title:
Creativity for Scientists and Engineers: A Practical Guide
Format: Electronic eBook
Contents:
  • part I. Koestler's law of creativity. 1. What, precisely, is creativity?
  • 1.1. Some dictionary definitions
  • 1.2. My 'sound-bite' definition--just five words
  • 1.3. Ideas as outcomes, ideas as questions
  • 1.4. Invention and discovery
  • 1.5. What's missing from the sound-bite?
  • 1.6. What is 'new'?
  • 1.7. It's difference that's important, not novelty...
  • 1.8. ...and the best way to discover differences is to be observant
  • 1.9. Value
  • 2. Creativity in context
  • 2.1. Creativity alone is not enough
  • 2.2. A richer picture
  • 2.3. Process 1--creativity
  • 2.4. Process 2--evaluation
  • 2.5. Processes 3 and 4--development and implementation
  • 2.6. The target diagram and skills
  • 3. The six domains of creativity
  • 3.1. Creativity is not just about 'the better mousetrap'
  • 3.2. Content
  • 3.3. Process
  • 3.4. Strategy
  • 3.5. Structures
  • 3.6. Relationships
  • 3.7. You!
  • 3.8. The importance of the organisational culture
  • 4. Koestler's law
  • 4.1. Arthur Koestler's definition of creativity
  • 4.2. The 'eureka moment' myth
  • 4.3. 'But I'm not a creative person'
  • 4.4. Creativity is all about patterns
  • 4.5. 'Bisociation' and 'thinking aside'
  • 4.6. The more familiar the parts, the more striking the new whole
  • 4.7. What Koestler's law does, and doesn't, do
  • 4.8. The Koestler challenge
  • 5. Some more examples of Koestler's law
  • 5.1. Literature
  • 5.2. Art
  • 5.3. Chemistry
  • 5.4. How chemistry made impressionist art happen...
  • 5.5. ...and how physics has facilitated contemporary art
  • 5.6. History, politics, philosophy, and economics
  • 5.7. Newton's laws of motion and gravitation
  • 5.8. A brief digression--coincidence, co-invention and the zeitgeist
  • 5.9. The light bulb
  • 5.10. Casa Batlló
  • 5.11. The DC electric motor
  • 5.12. The impossible building
  • 5.13. Special relativity
  • 5.14. The structure of DNA
  • 5.15. DNA--a final word. part II. How to have great ideas, deliberately
  • 6. The 'da Vinci problem'
  • 6.1. Building on Koestler's Law
  • 6.2. The helicopter that couldn't fly
  • 6.3. The problem of the missing component
  • 6.4. You might be a 'victim', now
  • 6.5. Identify the missing component(s) as precisely as you can
  • 6.6. Keep your eyes--and ears--open
  • 6.7. Be patient
  • 6.8. In conclusion
  • 7. Emergence--why some patterns are better than others
  • 7.1. Emergence
  • 7.2. Same components, different patterns
  • 7.3. Not too little, not too much
  • 7.4. Patterns within patterns
  • 7.5. Emergence is often subjective
  • 7.6. An enriched definition of creativity
  • 8. Knowledge, experience, learning, and unlearning
  • 8.1. Where are the Koestler's law 'components'?
  • 8.2. Donald Hebb's theory of learning
  • 8.3. The learning trap
  • 8.4. Unlearning
  • 8.5. Why is unlearning so difficult?
  • 8.6. Hegel, and genetics
  • 8.7. A brief pause...
  • 9. How to have great ideas 'on demand'
  • 9.1. InnovAction!
  • 9.2. Step 1 : Define the 'focus of attention'
  • 9.3. Step 2 : Individually and in silence, write down everything you know about the agreed focus of attention
  • 9.4. Step 3 : Share
  • 9.5. Step 4 : Then choose one feature, and ask 'How might this be different?'
  • 9.6. Step 5 : Let it be...
  • 9.7. Step 6 : ...and then, when that discussion runs out of steam, choose another feature and repeat steps 4 and 5
  • 9.8. The nine dots puzzle revisited
  • 10. InnovAction! in action
  • 10.1. Ideas for games based on chess
  • 10.2. Some things we know about chess
  • 10.3. Ideas, ideas, ideas...
  • 10.4. It really is as simple as that!
  • 10.5. The central step--step 4 : 'How might this be different?'
  • 10.6. Different ways of being different
  • 10.7. Some examples
  • 11. Springboards and retro-fits
  • 11.1. InnovAction! is not the only way to have idea 'on demand'
  • 11.2. Some other springboards
  • 11.3. Random words--a retrofit
  • 11.4. Some other retro-fits
  • 11.5. Springboards and retrofits--which to use?
  • 12. Creativity workshops
  • 12.1. Observation, curiosity and permission made real
  • 12.2. The workshop themes
  • 12.3. Who should participate?
  • 12.4. How workshops are structured
  • 12.5. The idea generation group briefs
  • 12.6. Don't impose constraints on cost and resources
  • 12.7. Creativity, not evaluation
  • 12.8. Quantity, quantity, quantity
  • 12.9. After the workshop
  • 13. Creativity in science and engineering
  • 13.1. What this chapter is about
  • 13.2. Detecting gravitational waves
  • 13.3. Building Nemo
  • 13.4. Synthetic synapses
  • 13.5. Biomimetic adhesives
  • 13.6. The magic colouring sheet
  • 13.7. Quantum entanglement, single-pixel cameras, and novel endoscopes
  • 13.8. Keeping the UK's railways safe
  • 13.9. The 'Medusa effect'
  • 13.10. Mixing things up : ellipsometry and strong coupling
  • 13.11. Reducing noise
  • 13.12. How nanopatterns made it from a semiconductor facility to an artist's print room
  • 13.13. Newton's rings and flat screens
  • 13.14. Blue Plan-itª and Water ARCª
  • part III. How to evaluate ideas, wisely. 14. Evaluation in context
  • 14.1. Why wise evaluation is important
  • 14.2. A very bad idea indeed
  • 14.3. Not all ideas are good ones...
  • 14.4. ...and even good ideas can be fiercely opposed
  • 14.5. How do you, and your organisation, evaluate ideas now?
  • 15. How to evaluate ideas wisely
  • 15.1. Features of a wise evaluation process
  • 15.2. An ideal process for wise evaluation
  • 15.3. The half-way house
  • 15.4. Wise evaluation, Edward de Bono's 'hats', and the importance of language
  • 15.5. 'Evaluation lite'
  • 15.6. And so to development and implementation
  • part IV. Building an innovative culture. 16. What is 'culture'?
  • 16.1. The Covid-19 vaccine miracle
  • 16.2. Language
  • 16.3. Observation, curiosity and permission revisited
  • 16.4. The wider picture--'enablers' and 'motivators'
  • 17. Enablers
  • 17.1. Budgets
  • 17.2. Funding
  • 17.3. Managing development and implementation
  • 17.4. The idea archive
  • 17.5. Physical environment
  • 17.6. Behaviours
  • 18. Motivators
  • 18.1. Reward and recognition
  • 18.2. Performance measures
  • 18.3. Training
  • 18.4. The role of senior management
  • 18.5. Embedding innovation in the day-job
  • 18.6. So, what next?
  • 19. Epilogue
  • 20. Further reading.