Creative and innovative thinking – how do scientists and inventors do it?

Kevin Byron  looked at how scientists and ourselves develop radical new ideas and at the techniques that can be used to flick our brain down strange and unusual paths to get a new level of creativity. How does the brain handle counter-intuitive ideas. Kevin Byron has been working in this area for several years financed by a research grant from NESTA (The National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts).

A fascinating evening with demonstrations of several counter-intuitive mechanical devices which fooled everyone. I’m sure everyone learned something of use personally. “How to think off the beaten track without getting lost” and some interesting insights into statistics and motivation and what causes change – sometimes not what the experiments seem to show.