In a book perfect for readers of Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit, David Eagleman’s Incognito, and Leonard Mlodinow’s Subliminal, the cognitive neuroscientists who discovered how the brain has aha moments—sudden creative insights—explain how they happen, when we need them, and how we can have more of them to enrich our lives and empower personal and professional success. Eureka or aha moments are sudden realizations that expand our understanding of the world and ourselves, conferring both personal growth and practical advantage. Such creative insights, as psychological scientists call them, were what conveyed an important discovery in the science of genetics to Nobel laureate Barbara McClintock, the melody of a Beatles ballad to Paul McCartney, and an understanding of the cause of human suffering to the Buddha. But these moments of clarity are not given only to the famous. Anyone can have them. In The Eureka Factor, John Kounios and Mark Beeman explain how insights arise and what the scientific research says about stimulating more of them. They discuss how various conditions affect the likelihood of your having an insight, when insight is helpful and when deliberate methodical thought is better suited to a task, what the relationship is between insight and intuition, and how the brain’s right hemisphere contributes to creative thought. Written in a lively, engaging style, this book goes beyond scientific principles to offer productive techniques for realizing your creative potential—at home and at work. The authors provide compelling anecdotes to illustrate how eureka experiences can be a key factor in your life. Attend a dinner party with Christopher Columbus to learn why we need insights. Go to a baseball game with the director of a classic Disney Pixar movie to learn about one important type of aha moment. Observe the behind-the-scenes arrangements for an Elvis Presley concert to learn why the timing of insights is crucial. Accessible and compelling, The Eureka Factor is a fascinating look at the human brain and its seemingly infinite capacity to surprise us. Praise for The Eureka Factor “Delicious . . . In The Eureka Factor, neuroscientists John Kounios and Mark Beeman give many other examples of [a] kind of lightning bolt of insight, but back this up with the latest brain-imaging research.”—Newsweek “An incredible accomplishment . . . [The Eureka Factor] is not just a chronicle of the journey that numerous scientists (including the authors) have taken to examine insight but is also a fascinating guide to how advances in science are made in general. Messrs. Kounios and Beeman examine how a parade of clever experiments can be designed to answer specific questions and rule out alternative possibilities. . . . Wonderful ideas appear as if out of nowhere—and we are delighted.”—The Wall Street Journal “An excellent title for those interested in neuroscience or creativity . . . The writing is engaging and readable, mixing stories of famous perceptions with explanations of how such revelations happen.”—Library Journal (starred review) “A lively and accessible ‘brain’ book with wide appeal.”—Booklist “[An] ingenious, thoughtful update on how the mind works.”—Kirkus Reviews “The Eureka Factor presents a fascinating and illuminating account of the creative process and how to foster it.”—James J. Heckman, Nobel laureate in economics

Our subjective inner life is what really matters to us as human beings--and yet we know relatively little about how it arises. Over a long and distinguished career Benjamin Libet has conducted experiments that have helped us see, in clear and concrete ways, how the brain produces conscious awareness. For the first time, Libet gives his own account of these experiments and their importance for our understanding of consciousness. Most notably, Libet's experiments reveal a substantial delay--the mind time of the title--before any awareness affects how we view our mental activities. If all conscious awarenesses are preceded by unconscious processes, as Libet observes, we are forced to conclude that unconscious processes initiate our conscious experiences. Freely voluntary acts are found to be initiated unconsciously before an awareness of wanting to act--a discovery with profound ramifications for our understanding of free will. How do the physical activities of billions of cerebral nerve cells give rise to an integrated conscious subjective awareness? How can the subjective mind affect or control voluntary actions? Libet considers these questions, as well as the implications of his discoveries for the nature of the soul, the identity of the person, and the relation of the non-physical subjective mind to the physical brain that produces it. Rendered in clear, accessible language, Libet's experiments and theories will allow interested amateurs and experts alike to share the experience of the extraordinary discoveries made in the practical study of consciousness.

Are innovation and creativity helped or hindered by our intellectual property laws? In the two hundred plus years since the Constitution enshrined protections for those who create and innovate, we're still debating the merits of IP laws and whether or not they actually work as intended. Artists, scientists, businesses, and the lawyers who serve them, as well as the Americans who benefit from their creations all still wonder: what facilitates innovation and creativity in our digital age? And what role, if any, do our intellectual property laws play in the growth of innovation and creativity in the United States? Incentivizing the "progress of science and the useful arts" has been the goal of intellectual property law since our constitutional beginnings. The Eureka Myth cuts through the current debates and goes straight to the source: the artists and innovators themselves. Silbey makes sense of the intersections between intellectual property law and creative and innovative activity by centering on the stories told by artists, scientists, their employers, lawyers and managers, describing how and why they create and innovate and whether or how IP law plays a role in their activities. Their employers, business partners, managers, and lawyers also describe their role in facilitating the creative and innovative work. Silbey's connections and distinctions made between the stories and statutes serve to inform present and future innovative and creative communities. Breaking new ground in its examination of the U.S. economy and cultural identity, The Eureka Myth draws out new and surprising conclusions about the sometimes misinterpreted relationships between creativity and intellectual property protections.

"The Einstein Factor liberates mental abilities you didn’t know you had. I tried the techniques in the book and they paid off instantly. It’s almost scary." —Duncan Maxwell Anderson, senior editor, Success. New research suggests that the superior achievements of famous thinkers may have been more the result of mental conditioning than genetic superiority. Now you can learn to condition your mind in the same way and improve your performance in virtually all aspects of mental ability, including memory, quickness, IQ, and learning capacity. Intelligence pioneer Dr. Win Wenger has identified the tools you need to reach greater levels of sharpness, insight, and overall intelligence. Using Wenger’s Image Streaming technique, you learn to bypass inhibitions and access the hypernormal capabilities hidden in your own subconscious. Discover how you can: • Improve your memory • Read faster and learn more quickly • Solve problems like a genius • Score higher on tests • Build self-esteem • Induce a state of total creative absorption • Access powerful subconscious insights through visualization • Increase your intelligence The Einstein Factor is your key to living an extraordinarily effective and creative life!

Where do great ideas come from? What actually happens in your brain during a 'Eureka' moment? And how can we have more of them? It has been two millenia since Archimedes supposedly first shouted 'Eureka!' as he sat in his bath. The word - Greek for 'I have found it' - captures the feeling we have all experienced during moments of sudden insight. Despite a century of scientific inquiry into the nature of these particular moments, their origin has remained a mystery. Mark Beeman and John Kounios, leading experts on the neural bases of insight and creative thinking, have conducted pioneering neuroimaging research examining brain activity at and before these moments of clarity. In The Eureka Factor they reveal exactly how sudden insights are formed in the brain, how we can increase our chances of generating them, and how they impact our thinking. Helping to unlock the mechanisms behind intuitive flashes and inspiration, this groundbreaking account not only explains the science of insight, but also describes the keys to innovation and creativity.

The overall purpose of the book is to present (1) the best science on creativity and innovation in the most practical way possible and (2) a new way of teaching called the Nonsense Method, which relies on humans’ incredible ability to create sense out of apparent nonsense and have fun while doing it. The central theory of the book, the Obscure Features Hypothesis for Innovation (OFH), is the first approach to innovation that yields effective counter techniques to all known cognitive obstacles to innovation. The OFH states that any creative solution is built upon at least one commonly overlooked (i.e., obscure) or new feature of the problem. Each chapter ends with puzzles that relate to the cognitive obstacle and counter technique discussed in the chapter. Two hints and a solution for each puzzle are given at the book’s end. The Nonsense Method of Teaching focuses upon universal puzzles that can be adapted to any subject. These universal puzzles situate vocabulary words and ideas from any subject matter in situations that need to be connected and thus made sense of.

A man is endangered by his family’s long-ago Nazi ties in this “riveting” thriller by a New York Times–bestselling author (Rolling Stone). His marriage destroyed by drinking, John Cooper returns to Cambridge, Massachusetts, trying to recapture the joy he felt as an undergraduate in Harvard University’s sacred halls. He is just beginning to piece his life together when he gets a telegram calling him home to Minnesota. The message comes from Buenos Aires, and with Cooper’s family history, that can mean only one thing: The Nazis are staging a comeback. To John and his brother, their grandfather was a kind, distinguished old man. But to the American people, he was the worst kind of traitor. An industrialist who spent the 1930s in business with Fascists, he became infamous as “America’s Number One Nazi.” When Hitler’s old lieutenants decide to get together a Fourth Reich, the Coopers are the first family they call. John hasn’t even made it to Minnesota when the first attempt on his life comes—a message that if he isn’t ready to honor his family legacy, he will die for it.