A world renowned biologist told me over breakfast one morning that great scientific advances do not begin with moments of sudden insight that elicit “Eureka,” but with moments of puzzlement that produce a…..”Huh?”
In other words, things that suddenly make sense are less likely to revolutionize the way we look at the world than things that make no sense.
Discoveries that make sense tend to be consistent with our world view, while observations that make no sense challenge it, causing us to re-think fundamental assumptions and make quantum leaps in our understanding of nature.
Atmospheric scientist James Lovelock noticed several phenomena that made no sense, ultimately leading him to the radical conclusion that the Earth—despite having roughly 9 million different species of living organisms—behaves as a single living being.