I did a presentation a couple of weeks ago in Sydney in which I made reference to innovators breaking paradigms. Often paradigm change is bought about by people who are free to challenge the status quo.
To illustrate, here’s a great example from New Scientist.
“Barry Marshall studied medicine at the University of Western Australia. In 1981, while working at the Royal Perth Hospital, he met pathologist Robin Warren and they began investigating bacteria Warren had observed in stomach biopsies. They later found out that these bacteria, Helicobacter pylori, caused stomach ulcers and cancer. Warren and Marshall were awarded the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine in 2005.”
Why did you discover this, not the specialists?
Many people built careers on researching ulcers, but they were barking up the wrong tree. It was much better for us to be coming from a position of ignorance. We didn’t have a plan to find a cure for ulcers – we were simply trying find out what these bacteria were. If people don’t have an investment in the existing paradigm, they are free to invent a new one. There is a lot of inertia in research. People running major research projects can’t suddenly change tack and move the whole lab into another area.”