Recommended Readings¶

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Every reading the syllabus assigns, in the order the course meets it

Readings are the first of the course's three tools. The syllabus names two books you buy, Ehrlich's Nine Crazy Ideas in Science and Adams's Conceptual Blockbusting, "And a lot of xeroxed handouts, not listed here, many from current periodicals." Each reading is due on the day of its class meeting; the original syllabus has the full schedule.

How to read for this course¶

The syllabus asks for more than reading:

• Mark it up. Comment on each reading, "at least by underlining and making marginal notations."
• Write a page. "I expect you to commit to paper a page per class session to celebrate the best things you find or think of while involved with these readings."
• Keep a checklist. Save a list of good ideas from the readings, or from your reactions to them, and use it "to joggle your brains during every problem-solving session." Put a check mark beside an idea when you try it, with the page number in your GamesWorth book, and "See which ones help you."
• File it. Keep the readings and your comments on them in a separate loose-leaf binder, not tucked into your notebook.
• Read on time. Readings are due "no later than the corresponding class meeting date"; apart from Adams and Ehrlich, Winfree handed them out a week ahead.

On the checklist Winfree added: "By the way, so far as I am aware, no student has ever done this. I still recommend it."

Readings by session¶

Built from the schedule in the syllabus. Each reading links to its entry below. Sessions with no reading listed are left blank, as in the syllabus.

Beveridge, Pólya, Gleick and Koestler are not assigned to any session; they were on library reserve (see Books on reserve).

The course books¶

The syllabus says "Two required books await you in the local bookstores": Adams and Ehrlich. A third, Judson, was out of print, so Winfree provided copies.

James L. Adams, Conceptual Blockbusting¶

Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas, 5^th edition 🔒 Basic Books, 2019.

Adams, a consulting engineer in Winfree's description, sorts the things that stop good ideas into kinds of block and then offers ways around them. Section 2 of the course is built on his chapters. The syllabus assigns them in this order, using its own chapter labels (the 2001 course used an earlier edition, so chapter numbers in the current edition may differ):

• Preface and Chapter 1: sessions 01 and 02
• Chapter 2, Perceptual blocks: session 07
• Chapter 3, Emotional blocks: session 08
• Chapter 4, Cultural blocks: session 09
• Chapter 5, Intellectual blocks: session 10
• Chapter 7, Blockbusters: session 11
• Chapter 6, Alternative thinking languages: session 22

No legitimate open-access edition exists; libraries hold the earlier editions.

Robert Ehrlich, Nine Crazy Ideas in Science¶

Nine Crazy Ideas in Science: A Few Might Even Be True 🔒 Princeton University Press, 2001.

A physicist takes a series of unpopular claims and asks how far each survives the evidence. The first chapter is an introduction on how to judge a crazy idea; each later chapter takes up one idea. It gives the course a steady supply of claims to weigh in Sections 3 and 4. The syllabus assigns:

• Chapter 1 (Introduction): session 06
• Chapter 2: session 16
• Chapter 3: session 17
• Chapter 4: session 18
• Chapter 5: session 20
• Chapter 6: session 21
• Chapter 7: session 23
• Chapter 10: session 24

Horace Freeland Judson, The Search for Solutions¶

The Search for Solutions 🔓 (borrow). Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980. The Internet Archive copy is the Johns Hopkins University Press edition of 1987.

A historian's account of how scientists actually find things out, told through short case studies. The syllabus notes it was out of print, so Winfree provided copies and put it on Main Library Reserve. The chapters assigned, with their titles as the syllabus gives them:

• Chapter 1, The Rage to Know: session 03
• Chapter 2, Pattern: session 19
• Chapter 4, Chance: session 14
• Chapter 7, Strong Predictions: session 28
• Chapter 8, Evidence: session 15
• Chapter 9, Theory: session 30

The handouts¶

The short readings, in the order the schedule assigns them. The syllabus names most of them in a few words; where it names only an author and a topic, the entry says which piece the editors take it to be.

Platt, The Art of Creative Thinking¶

John R. Platt, "The Art of Creative Thinking," a chapter of The Excitement of Science 🔓 (borrow). Houghton Mifflin, 1962. Session 02.

The first handout of the course and the source of its central habit. The syllabus explains the name of the daily notebook: "Platt: The Art of Creative Thinking: the allusion is to how much thought it takes to play one game of serious chess." The introduction to Winfree's column Adventures in Discovery names the same essay as the source of his own daily Gamesworth habit. See the GamesWorth page for how the course uses it. A third-party explainer: a "GamesWorth" of reasoning 🔓.

Feynman, Cargo Cult Science¶

Richard P. Feynman, Cargo Cult Science 🔓 Caltech commencement address, 1974; Engineering and Science 37(7), 10–13 (1974). Session 02.

Feynman on research that has the outward form of science without its honesty, and on the extra care it takes not to fool yourself. It sets up Section 1's theme of detecting nonsense.

The N-rays affair¶

N-ray: overview and guide to the primary sources 🔓 Session 05.

In 1903 René Blondlot reported a new radiation that other laboratories then "saw" too; R. W. Wood's visit, in which he secretly removed a key part of the apparatus, showed the effect was imaginary. Primary sources: R. W. Wood, "The n-Rays," Nature 70, 530–531 (1904), doi:10.1038/070530a0 🔒; I. M. Klotz, "The N-Ray Affair," Scientific American 242(5), 168–175 (1980), doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0580-168 🔒. The syllabus names only "N-Rays", so which text Winfree handed out is not recorded. The case is also a course problem: N-Rays.

Langmuir, Pathological Science¶

Irving Langmuir, Pathological Science 🔓 Colloquium at General Electric, 18 December 1953, transcribed by R. N. Hall; published in Physics Today 42(10), 36–48 (1989), doi:10.1063/1.881205 🔒. Session 05.

Langmuir's case studies of capable scientists who fooled themselves, N-rays among them, and his list of symptoms by which such work can be recognized.

Packet of readings: valuing mistakes¶

Session 06. The syllabus lists only "Packet of readings: valuing mistakes"; its contents were not recorded, and no copy is known. The syllabus lists among the course's aims "learning a positive attitude toward mistakes, because they are often the most available doors to discovery."

Calandra, The Barometer Story¶

Alexander Calandra, The Barometer Story ("Angels on the Head of a Pin") 🔓 Saturday Review, 21 December 1968. Session 08.

A student asked to find a building's height with a barometer gives every answer except the one the examiner wants. Read with Adams on emotional blocks; the course treats it as a problem too: The Barometer Story.

Platt, Diversity¶

John R. Platt, Diversity 🔒 Science 154, 1132–1139 (1966). Session 09.

On the value of many different approaches and styles in science. Assigned alongside Adams on cultural blocks.

Dyson, Unfashionable Pursuits¶

Freeman Dyson, Unfashionable Pursuits 🔒 The Mathematical Intelligencer 5(3), 47–54 (1983); collected in From Eros to Gaia (1992). Session 12.

A case for working on problems that are out of fashion.

Capecchi, one-page biography¶

Session 12. A one-page biography of Mario Capecchi, handed out in class. The syllabus says only "Capecchi one-page biography"; the piece itself has not been identified, so no link is given.

Narlikar, Venture Funding for New Ideas¶

Jayant V. Narlikar, Venture funding for new ideas 🔒 Nature 404, 707 (2000). Session 12.

A short argument that the way research is funded shapes which new ideas get a hearing. The syllabus assigns it with Dyson and the Capecchi biography in the last session of Section 2.

Anderson, More Is Different¶

Philip W. Anderson, More Is Different 🔓 Science 177, 393–396 (1972). Canonical: doi:10.1126/science.177.4047.393 🔒. Session 14.

The syllabus says only "Anderson on research strategy"; this essay is the editors' identification, not Winfree's. Anderson argues that each level of complexity needs its own concepts and cannot simply be derived from the level below.

Chamberlin, The Method of Multiple Working Hypotheses¶

T. C. Chamberlin, The Method of Multiple Working Hypotheses 🔓 Science 148, 754–759 (1965), a reprint of the paper first published in Science ns-15, 92–96 (1890). DOIs: 1890 original 🔒, 1965 reprint 🔒. Session 25.

The classic warning against falling in love with one explanation: keep several in play at once so that no single favourite bends what you see. It opens Section 5.

Platt, Strong Inference¶

John R. Platt, Strong Inference 🔓 Science 146, 347–353 (1964). Canonical: doi:10.1126/science.146.3642.347 🔒. Session 27.

Platt builds on Chamberlin: list the alternative hypotheses, design the experiment whose outcome rules some of them out, run it, and repeat.

Feynman, The Character of Physical Law¶

Richard P. Feynman, The Character of Physical Law (first published 1965; MIT Press edition: publisher 🔒). The 1964 Cornell Messenger Lectures on which the book is based are free to watch on the Internet Archive 🔓. Session 29.

Feynman on what physical laws are like and how they are found. The syllabus names the book without a chapter, so which part was handed out is not known.

Books on reserve¶

Not assigned to any session. Winfree put these on library reserve "for your attention if you consider it important to acquire better skills in problem solving."

Beveridge, The Art of Scientific Investigation¶

W. I. B. Beveridge, The Art of Scientific Investigation 🔓 W. W. Norton, 1957 (first published 1950). Free full text on the Internet Archive (no known copyright restrictions, as determined by the scanning institution).

A British physician's study of how discoveries are made: chance, intuition, hypothesis, and the habits of productive scientists. Winfree dropped it from the requirements "because I find that no one reads it anyhow, I think because archaic attitudes offend," but added: "I consider it the best of the lot."

Pólya, Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning¶

George Pólya, Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning, Princeton University Press, 1954, in two volumes:

• Vol. I, Induction and Analogy in Mathematics 🔓 (borrow)
• Vol. II, Patterns of Plausible Inference 🔓 (borrow)

In the syllabus's words, "using elementary math as example material for general principles": how to guess well, generalize, specialize and test before you can prove.

Gleick, Genius¶

James Gleick, Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman 🔒 Pantheon, 1992.

The syllabus describes it as a "biography of Richard Feynman, a great problem solver."

Koestler, The Watershed¶

Arthur Koestler, The Watershed: A Biography of Johannes Kepler 🔓 (borrow). Doubleday Anchor, 1960.

Kepler's long struggle toward his laws of planetary motion, false starts included. As the syllabus notes, it is a chapter of Koestler's The Sleepwalkers.

Professor Arthur T. Winfree's own work¶

Not course readings: a short guide to the scientist who designed the course.

J. J. Tyson & L. Glass, Arthur T. Winfree (1942–2002) 🔒 Journal of Theoretical Biology 230, 433–439 (2004). A tribute surveying his life and science. See also the open Wikipedia biography 🔓.

Books¶

• The Geometry of Biological Time 🔒 (Springer, 1980; 2^nd ed. 2001, ISBN 0-387-98992-7). His major work on biological rhythms: circadian clocks, heart rhythms and other timing phenomena treated as the geometry of oscillators.
• When Time Breaks Down: The Three-Dimensional Dynamics of Electrochemical Waves and Cardiac Arrhythmias 🔓 (borrow) (Princeton University Press, 1987). Spiral waves in excitable media and what they mean for disorders of the heartbeat. The Internet Archive copy currently lends as a one-hour browse.
• The Timing of Biological Clocks (Scientific American Library / W. H. Freeman, 1987). A treatment of biological rhythms for general readers. The Internet Archive copy 🔒 is print-disabled access only, so most readers will need a library copy.

Papers¶

• Biological Rhythms and the Behavior of Populations of Coupled Oscillators 🔒 Journal of Theoretical Biology 16, 15–42 (1967). His foundational paper on how many oscillators fall into step.
• Spiral Waves of Chemical Activity 🔒 Science 175, 634–636 (1972). Spiral waves in the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction, the reaction most likely used in the course's Chemical Pattern-Formation Lab.
• The Prehistory of the Belousov-Zhabotinsky Oscillator 🔓 Journal of Chemical Education 61, 661–663 (1984). Canonical: doi:10.1021/ed061p661 🔒. How the reaction was discovered and long disbelieved.
• Electrical Turbulence in Three-Dimensional Heart Muscle 🔒 Science 266, 1003–1006 (1994). His wave theory applied to life-threatening arrhythmias.

Writing for amateurs¶

• Adventures in Discovery 🔓 (Society for Amateur Scientists, 2001–2002; Web Archive capture). Winfree's column of puzzles he worked through as daily GamesWorths, including the one behind the course's Rainbow Moon problem.

Background¶

• Phase response curve 🔓 Scholarpedia. An open, peer-reviewed introduction to phase response curves, one of the tools Winfree used to study how rhythms respond to a stimulus.

The goal is not to read about problem solving, but to turn what you read into habits through daily practice and honest reflection.

Machine-readable: this page as Markdown · raw source on GitHub · llms.txt · llms-full.txt (whole site). See For AI agents.