It is a question as old as civilisation. What happens in the brain of a man or woman whose ideas will change our understanding of the world? How does a new idea come about? How is it developing? Does a scientist think like the average person, or is there a “scientific mind” that has its own functioning? And where do these vocations that engage the life of an individual on the path of research come from?
After six years at the helm of the “scientific method” programme on France Culture, and hundreds of interviews with researchers from all disciplines, Nicolas Martin has brought together 17 major names in research. In original interviews, he asks them about their career, the birth of their vocation, how a new idea appears or how they can circumvent a failure, as well as the conditions conducive to the emergence of new ideas. Do they think in words? in pictures? in concepts? Do they need to write or speak out? Silence or company? What is an anomaly? Is research a source of serenity or anxiety?