We are close to the end of this intensive month of research, work and learning. As we are convinced that science is itself a creative experience, this time we challenged them to participate in the Crazy Ideas Night, a crazy idea in itself that came from Oxford embarked on the, also, crazy head of Tamas David-Barrett. Next, you will find “The rules of the Crazy Ideas Workshop”:

The format of the presentation should be, strictly:

1. Title
2. Introduction. That should include (a) the context of the question (b) some literature on the subject and (c) the precise hypothesis, which is in fact your crazy idea, and its corresponding mechanism.
3. Methodology. This is your design, be it theoretical tests or design for an empirical study. This may also be crazy, but it must be scientifically convincing – a method that is really consistent with the hypothesis.
4. Results. You can just invent them
5. Discussion How surprising or important is your discovery. Consequences of the results. Limitations of the study. Questions for the future
6. References

We will have 3 Thursdays that will give your score to each presentation according to (a) level of insanity of the idea, (b) the scientific merit of the design and (c) the presentation, how convincing they were.

The idea is to live an entertaining instance, but it is also an excellent opportunity to explore and think outside the box (in fact, very out of it). The last time this was done in Oxford was incredibly entertaining, but also very productive. They published two papers that emerged in these conversations.