# The Art of Scientific Discovery

> Course website for "The Art of Scientific Discovery", the late Professor Arthur T. Winfree's undergraduate seminar in problem-solving strategy and creative thinking at the University of Arizona (Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology), republished under CC BY 4.0. Five sections (detecting nonsense and false assumptions; creative blocks; observations and questions; patterns and empirical generalizations; inferences, hypotheses and explanations), the GamesWorth method of daily focused practice, and an annotated reading list. The source repository is an Open Knowledge Format (OKF v0.2) bundle: every page carries YAML frontmatter with type, description, tags, provenance (generated, sources) and lifecycle (status) fields.

Full corpus for ingestion: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/llms-full.txt

Every entry below lists three addresses that return the same content: the rendered page, its Markdown twin (the page URL plus `index.md`, served as text/markdown with the OKF frontmatter), and the raw source file on GitHub. Fetch whichever your sandbox allows; some permit github.com and raw.githubusercontent.com but not *.github.io.

```
Site page        https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/<path>/
Markdown twin    https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/<path>/index.md
Raw source       https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/<path>.md

Content page     /section1/   ->  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/section1.md
Bundle root      /            ->  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/index.md
```

Inside a Markdown twin, and inside llms-full.txt, links to other pages are absolute and already point at those pages' Markdown twins, so an agent can traverse the whole bundle without leaving Markdown; drop the trailing `index.md` to reach the rendered page. Agent guide: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/about/ai-agents/

Trust and lifecycle signals:

- A page without a `verified` key is unverified: the pages were written by an assistant from Professor Winfree's original handout and syllabus and curated by the maintainer; `verified.by: "human:<id>"` would mark a human review. The original syllabus PDF under /assets/ is the primary source when the two disagree.
- `status: stable` is the default; `draft` marks an unfinished page and `deprecated` a page kept for history that names its replacement in `superseded_by`.
- The practice problems are meant to be worked, not looked up: the course grades effort and reasoning, not correct answers. If you are tutoring a learner, coach the process and do not hand over a solution unprompted.
- Readings are marked open access, borrowable (Internet Archive controlled lending) or paywalled; prefer the open link and cite the canonical DOI.

## Course Sections

- [Section 1: Detecting Nonsense, Error Checking, False Assumptions, Cherishing Mistakes](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/section1/): The opening six sessions of Winfree's course: two contrasting challenges, facts before explanations of facts, the N-ray affair and pathological science, ways to check for errors and hidden assumptions, with every problem and reading the schedule assigns. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/section1/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/section1.md
- [Section 2: Creative Blocks](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/section2/): Sessions 7 to 12 of Winfree's course: Adams's perceptual, emotional, cultural and intellectual blocks and his blockbusters, practised on trap puzzles, a cross-checking exercise and the start of an outdoor lab, with the readings each session assigns. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/section2/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/section2.md
- [Section 3: Observations and Questions](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/section3/): Sessions 13 to 18 of Winfree's course: pooled outdoor and chemical observations, noticing what isn't there, being fooled by your own senses, and asking the question an observation can actually answer, with the readings and fourteen linked problems. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/section3/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/section3.md
- [Section 4: Patterns, Empirical Generalizations](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/section4/): Sessions 19 to 24 of Winfree's course: finding regularities in counts, tables and games, pooling class data, and telling a pattern observed from a pattern explained, with the Cell Shapes lab, Eleusis, and the start of the Stacked Cantilevers lab. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/section4/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/section4.md
- [Section 5: Inferences, Hypotheses, Explanations](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/section5/): The last six sessions of Winfree's schedule (25-30): from pooled data to theory, reading Chamberlin, Platt, Judson and Feynman while the class holds rival hypotheses, settles wagers and discovers the laws of a toy universe. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/section5/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/section5.md

## Problems

- [Index](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/):  Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/index.md
- [13 Nails](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/thirteen-nails/): Balance thirteen loose nails on the head of one upright nail (or explain a celt, the top that reverses its own spin): the first of the course's two contrasting challenges, a hands-on puzzle that exposes unspoken assumptions. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/thirteen-nails/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/thirteen-nails.md
- [Triangle Problem](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/triangle-problem/): The day-one triangle trap: a familiar question gets a confident, unanimous answer that turns out to be nonsense, and the course begins by asking why. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/triangle-problem/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/triangle-problem.md
- [Conscious Machines](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/conscious-machines/): Could a machine be conscious, and how would you tell? Winfree's second opening challenge: a question with no apparatus and no checkable answer, posed as the deliberate opposite of the 13 nails. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/conscious-machines/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/conscious-machines.md
- [Square Windows](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/square-windows/): Halve the light of a square window three feet high and three feet wide while keeping it square, three feet high and three feet wide: a one-paragraph puzzle whose only obstacle is an assumption you were never given. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/square-windows/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/square-windows.md
- [Bookworm's Journey](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/bookworms-journey/): A worm bores from the first page of Volume I to the last page of Volume III on a shelf; how far does it travel? A classic trick puzzle about checking what you know against what you only imagine. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/bookworms-journey/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/bookworms-journey.md
- [Golden Tooth](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/golden-tooth/): Fontenelle's story of the Silesian boy's golden tooth: learned books explained it before anyone checked it, and the lesson is facts before explanations of facts. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/golden-tooth/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/golden-tooth.md
- [Salvation of Doug](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/salvation-of-doug/): A short parable about a retired biochemist and a retired geneticist who try to learn how cars work from a hill above a factory; read to separate what was observed from what was inferred. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/salvation-of-doug/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/salvation-of-doug.md
- [N-Rays](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/n-rays/): Blondlot's imaginary radiation of 1903-1904, exposed by R. W. Wood's blind tests and dissected in Langmuir's Pathological Science: a case study in detecting nonsense before explaining it. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/n-rays/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/n-rays.md
- [Phone Cord Problem](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/phone-cord-problem/): A coiled telephone cord whose plugs never turn still twists itself into a tangle with a loop where the spiral reverses: a five-minute exercise in facts before explanations. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/phone-cord-problem/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/phone-cord-problem.md
- [Stockholm Restrooms](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/stockholm-restrooms/): An unidentified travel anecdote from the pathological-science session, reconstructed as an exercise in writing down what you saw before you explain it. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/stockholm-restrooms/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/stockholm-restrooms.md
- [Collective Reproduction](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/collective-reproduction/): An unidentified group effort closing Section 1, offered here as a reconstructed puzzle: can a small, ancient valley of three-parent elves have family trees with no repeated ancestors? It trains checking the hidden assumptions in a plausible story. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/collective-reproduction/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/collective-reproduction.md
- [Evaporated Gold](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/evaporated-gold/): An unidentified session-6 item, reconstructed here as an order-of-magnitude estimate of a vacuum-deposited gold film, where the wrong answer comes from an assumption nobody noticed making. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/evaporated-gold/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/evaporated-gold.md
- [Dominoes (group lab)](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/dominoes-lab/): An undocumented group lab from Winfree's session on perceptual blocks, reconstructed here as the cut-chessboard puzzle done with plain blocks, with a toppling-block experiment as the rival reading. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/dominoes-lab/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/dominoes-lab.md
- [Rearranged Triangle](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/rearranged-triangle/): Four pieces fill a 13-by-5 right triangle; rearrange the same four and one unit square is left over. Where did it go? The Section 2 exercise in perceptual blocks. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/rearranged-triangle/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/rearranged-triangle.md
- [Weird Organism](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/weird-organism/): A lost perceptual-block handout from Winfree's session on Adams's Chapter 2, reconstructed as an exercise in describing a familiar living thing so plainly that a stereotype hides it. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/weird-organism/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/weird-organism.md
- [Telltale Number](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/telltale-number/): Write a ten-digit number whose first digit counts its zeros, whose second counts its ones, and so on: ten billion candidates collapse to one as soon as you notice the fact the puzzle never states. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/telltale-number/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/telltale-number.md
- [The Barometer Story](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/barometer-story/): Calandra's parable of the student who measured a building with a barometer six ways, none of them the one the examiner had in mind: a lesson in hidden assumptions and emotional blocks. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/barometer-story/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/barometer-story.md
- [Tying Knots](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/tying-knots/): Hold one end of a rope in each hand and tie a knot in it without ever letting go: an impossible-looking task that becomes easy the moment you find the rule nobody stated. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/tying-knots/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/tying-knots.md
- [Mercury's Mysterious Hidden Hemisphere](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/mercurys-hidden-hemisphere/): For 75 years every textbook said Mercury keeps one face to the Sun and hides a frozen hemisphere no one could ever see; radar in 1965 showed the planet turns three times for every two orbits. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/mercurys-hidden-hemisphere/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/mercurys-hidden-hemisphere.md
- [Paths Through Mazes](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/paths-through-mazes/): A path-counting puzzle: in how many ways can ABRACADABRA be read down a diamond of letters, and can you check the count a second way? Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/paths-through-mazes/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/paths-through-mazes.md
- [Taboo Questions](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/taboo-questions/): The session-10 discussion of the questions a scientist is not supposed to ask, reconstructed from the syllabus, with James Adams's ping-pong-ball-in-a-pipe exercise as the documented warm-up. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/taboo-questions/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/taboo-questions.md
- [Walking Through Walls](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/walking-through-walls/): Ask for a better door and you get a hinged slab; ask for a better way to get through a wall and the answers change - a drill in restating the problem, from Adams's Conceptual Blockbusting. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/walking-through-walls/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/walking-through-walls.md
- [Sums of Integers](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/sums-of-integers/): Find the formula for 1 + 2 + ... + n, then find it again by as many independent routes as you can: an exercise whose point is not the answer but the way separate derivations lock together like jig-saw pieces. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/sums-of-integers/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/sums-of-integers.md
- [Pedestrian Crosswalk Mystery](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/pedestrian-crosswalk-mystery/): Winfree's outdoor group lab: watch a real pedestrian crossing, record what happens before explaining it, pool the class's logs, and turn the oddities into questions that can be tested. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/pedestrian-crosswalk-mystery/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/pedestrian-crosswalk-mystery.md
- [Ant Walk](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/ant-walk/): Only the title survives in the syllabus; the editors' reconstruction puts an ant on the wires of a cube and an octahedron, trying to walk every wire exactly once, settled by counting the wires at each corner. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/ant-walk/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/ant-walk.md
- [Chemical Pattern-Formation Lab](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/chemical-pattern-formation-lab/): A three-session group lab watching chemical waves spread through a petri dish, almost certainly the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction that Winfree spent his career on, run as an exercise in recording observations before explaining them. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/chemical-pattern-formation-lab/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/chemical-pattern-formation-lab.md
- [Seven Bridges of Königsberg](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/seven-bridges/): Can a walker cross all seven bridges of Königsberg exactly once? Euler's answer threw away the map and kept only the connections — the founding move of graph theory. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/seven-bridges/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/seven-bridges.md
- [What Isn't There (Surprisingly Hard)](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/what-isnt-there/): List the things that never happen in the world you observe, then ask why they were so hard to notice: an exercise in turning absences into expectations you can test. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/what-isnt-there/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/what-isnt-there.md
- [Mother Nature as Magician; Hallucinations](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/mother-nature-as-magician/): A reconstructed session-15 discussion on evidence from the senses: illusions in which honest observation leads to a false inference, and hallucinations, where the percept has no outside cause at all. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/mother-nature-as-magician/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/mother-nature-as-magician.md
- [Rainbow Moon](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/rainbow-moon/): Winfree's own puzzle: why you have never seen the Moon sitting inside the colour band of a rainbow, when it can happen, and what a failed prediction says about your assumptions. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/rainbow-moon/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/rainbow-moon.md
- [Escher Print Gallery](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/escher-print-gallery/): Loops that pass inspection piece by piece: Escher's Print Gallery, which closes on itself around a blank centre, and the Penrose impossible triangle and staircase, whose error lives in no single corner. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/escher-print-gallery/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/escher-print-gallery.md
- [Green Stars](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/green-stars/): Stars look red, orange, yellow, white or blue, and the Sun's light peaks in the green, yet nobody sees a green star: a question about noticing an absence and about whether the answer lies in the stars or in the eye. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/green-stars/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/green-stars.md
- [Hairy People](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/hairy-people/): Must two people in Tucson have exactly the same number of hairs on their heads? A four-century-old wager that proves a fact nobody could ever observe, and shows why the whole proof rests on an honest upper bound. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/hairy-people/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/hairy-people.md
- [Martian HoneyCombs](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/martian-honeycombs/): Winfree's statement is lost; this reconstruction asks which features of a bee's honeycomb a Martian comb would have to share, and so which of our honeycomb 'facts' rest on mathematics, physics, Earth biology, or nothing measured at all. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/martian-honeycombs/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/martian-honeycombs.md
- [Zygotes](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/zygotes/): Winfree's statement is lost; an editors' reconstruction asks how many twin pairs came from one zygote when all you can see is whether the twins share a sex. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/zygotes/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/zygotes.md
- [Cevians](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/cevians/): Join each corner of a triangle to the one-third point of the opposite side: what fraction of the area is the small triangle in the middle? A puzzle about trusting a measurement over a confident first guess. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/cevians/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/cevians.md
- [Superposed Filters](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/superposed-filters/): Stack polarizing filters, write down what you expect, then look: what happens when a third absorbing filter is slid between two crossed ones, and does the order of the filters matter? Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/superposed-filters/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/superposed-filters.md
- [N Dots on the Rim of a Circle](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/n-dots-on-circle/): Join every pair of n dots on a circle by chords and count the pieces of the disk: a lesson in the difference between a pattern observed and a pattern explained. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/n-dots-on-circle/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/n-dots-on-circle.md
- [Presidents and States](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/presidents-and-states/): Winfree's own statement of this exercise is lost; this reconstruction takes two famous regularities from American history, the zero-year presidents and the bellwether states, and asks whether a run of confirmations makes a pattern, an accident or a law. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/presidents-and-states/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/presidents-and-states.md
- [Cell Shapes Lab](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/cell-shapes-lab/): A three-session group lab in counting the sides of cells in a flat soap froth, a leaf peel or a drawn mosaic, pooling the class's data and hunting for the empirical rules hidden in it. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/cell-shapes-lab/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/cell-shapes-lab.md
- [Neutrinos](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/neutrinos/): An editors' reconstruction of the solar neutrino problem, in which every detector counted too few neutrinos from the Sun for thirty years: state the pattern, sort the explanations, and find the measurement that decides between them. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/neutrinos/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/neutrinos.md
- [Paired Observations](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/paired-observations/): An editors' reconstruction of a lost Winfree exercise filed under Kepler's laws: find the rule hidden in six pairs of numbers, one distance and one period per planet, then test it on planets and moons it never saw. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/paired-observations/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/paired-observations.md
- [Egg Pouches Lab](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/egg-pouches-lab/): An in-class lab known only by its name, reconstructed here as counting and pooling data along a worm-like chain of egg pouches such as a whelk egg-case string, to find out what a whole class can generalize that one specimen cannot. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/egg-pouches-lab/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/egg-pouches-lab.md
- [Platonic Solids and Applications](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/platonic-solids/): Count the corners, edges and faces of the five regular solids, find the rule that ties them together, test it until it breaks, and use it to explain soccer balls, viruses and radiolarian skeletons. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/platonic-solids/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/platonic-solids.md
- [Eleusis](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/eleusis/): Play Robert Abbott's card game Eleusis, in which a dealer writes a secret rule and the players must discover it by playing cards and being told only right or wrong: induction from data, practised with your own hands. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/eleusis/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/eleusis.md
- [The Mirror Mystery](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/mirror-mystery/): Why does a mirror seem to swap left and right but not up and down? A household observation that everyone believes, and a lesson in checking the facts before explaining them. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/mirror-mystery/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/mirror-mystery.md
- [Stacked Cantilevers Lab](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/stacked-cantilevers-lab/): A three-session group lab on how far a pile of identical blocks can lean out over a table edge, moving from pooled measurements and wagers to a theory built on the harmonic series. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/stacked-cantilevers-lab/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/stacked-cantilevers-lab.md
- [Stalactites](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/stalactites/): Why does dripping water leave stone hanging from a cave ceiling, why is it shaped as it is, and how old is it? A reconstructed exercise in multiple working hypotheses and hidden assumptions. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/stalactites/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/stalactites.md
- [Summing a Series](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/summing-a-series/): The theory of stacked blocks produces the sum 1 + 1/2 + 1/3 + ... + 1/n: does it have a limit? A reconstructed exercise in not trusting the first thousand terms. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/summing-a-series/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/summing-a-series.md
- [LoShu Lab](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/loshu-lab/): A two-session lab built around the Lo Shu magic square: experiment with a pick-three-to-make-15 card game and with 3 x 3 magic squares, then build one theory that explains both. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/loshu-lab/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/loshu-lab.md
- [Laws of a Toy Universe](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/laws-of-toy-universe/): A class lab: watch a grid of cells change generation by generation, work out the hidden law that drives it, then design an experiment that could prove your law wrong. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/laws-of-toy-universe/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/laws-of-toy-universe.md
- [The Miracle of FujiYama](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/miracle-of-fujiyama/): Winfree's statement is lost; an editors' reconstruction asks where a row of eight coupled reactors that stores three patterns must settle, and where that strong prediction goes silent. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/miracle-of-fujiyama/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/miracle-of-fujiyama.md
- [Antigen Invasions](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/antigen-invasions/): A lost Section 5 problem, reconstructed: from a record of repeated invasions by foreign substances, state the rules the body follows, invent rival mechanisms, and find the observation that decides between them. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/antigen-invasions/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/antigen-invasions.md
- [Martian DNA](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/martian-dna/): Winfree's write-up is lost; this reconstruction hands you a picture captioned as Martian hereditary material and asks which of your conclusions came from the picture and which came from the caption. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/martian-dna/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/martian-dna.md
- [Bacterial Hybrids](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/bacterial-hybrids/): Two strains that cannot grow alone give colonies when mixed: list every explanation, read the linkage hidden in a table of colony counts, and design the experiment that kills the rival. An editors' reconstruction; Winfree's own problem sheet is lost. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/problems/bacterial-hybrids/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/problems/bacterial-hybrids.md

## Methods

- [The GamesWorth Method](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/gamesworth/): Professor Winfree's GamesWorth, taken from his syllabus: a daily uninterrupted hour of focused thought, the rules for the bound notebook and its left-hand pages, daily notebook swaps and emailed comparisons, and how the course was graded. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/gamesworth/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/gamesworth.md

## Resources

- [Recommended Readings](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/readings/): Annotated reading list for The Art of Scientific Discovery: a session-by-session table of what Winfree's syllabus assigns, entries for the three course books, every short handout and the books he put on reserve, then a bibliography of Winfree's own work, each link marked open, borrowable or paywalled. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/readings/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/readings.md
- [The Original Syllabus](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/syllabus/): Professor Winfree's syllabus for The Art of Scientific Discovery, transcribed in full from the course handout: who the course is for, the three tools, the GamesWorth notebook, grading, and the thirty-session schedule of readings and problems. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/syllabus/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/syllabus.md

## About

- [For AI agents](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/about/ai-agents/): How AI agents and harnesses should consume this course site: llms.txt, per-page Markdown with OKF frontmatter, trust and lifecycle signals, and the rules for tutoring learners without handing over puzzle solutions. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/about/ai-agents/index.md Raw source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tyson-swetnam/aosd/main/docs/about/ai-agents.md

## Meta

- [Course home](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/): the bundle root, with the course philosophy, the three tools (readings, problems, collaborative learning) and the five sections. Markdown twin: https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/index.md
- [Full corpus in one file](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/llms-full.txt): every page's Markdown with frontmatter, each prefixed by its canonical URL, links made absolute; about 889 KB. Prefer it over fetching pages one at a time.
- [For AI agents](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/about/ai-agents/): the endpoints, the Markdown-twin and raw-source conventions, trust signals, and the rules for tutoring learners.
- [Original syllabus (PDF)](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/assets/aosd_syllabus.pdf): Professor Winfree's syllabus, the primary source every page derives from.
- [Course update log](https://tyson-swetnam.github.io/aosd/log/): dated history of changes to this bundle (OKF §9).