Scientific American: “Thinking Outside of the Toy Box: 4 Children’s Gizmos That Inspired Scientific Breakthroughs”

Thinking Outside of the Toy Box: 4 Children’s Gizmos That Inspired Scientific Breakthroughs:

Advances in science and technology can launch from unassuming springboards. In 1609 Galileo tweaked a toylike spyglass, pointed it at the moon and Jupiter (not the neighbors), and astronomy took a quantum leap. About 150 years later, Benjamin Franklin reportedly used a kite to experiment with one of the earliest-known electrical capacitors. Continuing that tradition, these researchers prove toys inspire more than child’s play.

“The laboratory is basically a glorified playroom,” says Jeremy Levy, physics professor at the University of Pittsburgh. “When we do experiments, it is a highly advanced form of play…we’re exploring new things.”

The researchers were inspired by and used toys for developing new technologies:

1. Etch A Sketch: nanoscale transistor
2. Legos: researching particle separators for “lab on a chip” microfluidic devices
3. Shrinky Dink: production of microfluidic devices
4. Balloons: nanoscale cancer drug delivery

Play researchers talk about an interconnection of play and cognitive flexibility (almost always as related to the neurological development of children). A couple thoughts here:

1. Consider the possibility that the act of playing with these four toys may have imprinted itself upon these researchers as children. Perhaps the act of playing with these toys had something to do with these very creative technical solutions — both the mechanics of the solutions and the creativity itself.
2. Play has a place in adult’s lives, and I believe there’s a real place for play in the workplace — for getting the creative juices going, and, oh, I don’t know, just being human. So, seriously, people, start goofing around and get back to work.