Tucked into the soft mountains of western Maryland, my Grandma's farmhouse sits on acres of land, bordered by corn fields and the Catoctin Mountain Highway. I'd spend parts of my summers and holidays here as a kid; now, I'm visiting with my own little family.
Friday night, we sat outside after sunset, watching the “farm-style fireworks”—lightning bugs. With each firefly flash, my toddler turned to my Grandmother and said, “Did you see that, GiGi?”
Remember the curiosity we had as kids? Staring at the ocean and wondering what creatures lived inside; looking at the sky and guessing what pushed the clouds; and, yes, watching lightning bugs twinkle and hoping it was magic. Summertime always reminds me to reach for wonder and curiosity. Are we ever too old to catch lightning bugs?
- Dr. Sarah Glova, Co-Editor of 8&21 and Barefoot Tag Champion of 1996
Firefly Innovation
National Inventors Hall of Fame inductee Emmett Chappelle was a pioneer researcher of bioluminescence—the trademark function of a lightning bug's glow.
His major discovery was that all living cells, if exposed to the same chemical combination found in lightning bugs, are capable of bioluminescence.
His research served as a building block for many inventions, including NASA prototypes designed to simulate how life could grow on other planets, and soil science techniques to understand organic material in soil.
- Pulled from, “Emmett Chappelle: Illuminating Paths Forward” on the National Inventors Hall of Fame website, invent.org.
When looking for a little lightning in a bottle to jump start innovative thinking, I revisit one of my favorite tools for generating new ideas: anti-solution brainstorming. Sometimes called negative brainstorming or reverse brainstorming, the idea of anti-solution brainstorming is to think up implausible options! No room for reasonable, feasible, or logical solutions here–instead, try generating the most impractical, magical, or unusual solutions.
Magic solutions requiring mythical beasts, solutions that disregard rules of gravity and time, dark solutions that are truly unhelpful– these are all great for anti-solution brainstorming. Obviously, the ideas generated for anti-solution brainstorming are not going to solve your problem. BUT, they can get you to shake off some of your idea inhibitions and spark creative solutions.
I rely on anti-solution brainstorming all the time when I am preparing new classes, workshops, or conference presentations. As soon as I find myself stuck, I ask myself what is the most ridiculously magical thing I could do here? Thinking up anti-solutions means a few moments of creative thinking that sets me up for new ideas that will be useable.
- Dr. Sarah Egan Warren, Co-Editor of 8&21 and Occasional Magical Thinker
Great job!
Way to take a pause and give 3 minutes to your practice of pursuing awesome
by exploring this issue's theme. You rock!
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