The Breakthrough: How to Think Like a Scientist, Learn to Fail and Embrace the Unknown

From the award-winning author of Explaining Humans

“A wondrous hymn to the scientific method and some of its most profound discoveries—and what it can teach us all about how to live better, richer lives.” — Prof. Lewis Dartnell, author of Being Human: How Our Biology Shaped World History

A scientist’s journey from observation to discovery is anything but straightforward. 

It’s filled with failure, unexpected detours, and moments of joyous realization. Science helps us understand ourselves—but what we already know about the world is only half the story.

In this illuminating new book, Dr. Camilla Pang explores some of the biggest mysteries facing science today and reveals how the methods used by cutting-edge researchers—observation, hypothesis, experimentation, and discovery—can guide us in navigating our own lives.

Blending curiosity, compassion, and insight, Dr. Pang shows how thinking like a scientist can help us troubleshoot problems, embrace uncertainty, and uncover the wonder that connects us all.

Dr Camilla Pang holds a PhD in biochemistry from University College London and is a postdoctoral scientist specializing in translational bioinformatics. At the age of eight, Camilla was diagnosed with ASD (autism spectrum disorder) and ADHD at twenty-six years old. Her career and studies have been heavily influenced by her diagnosis and she is driven by her passion for understanding humans, our behaviors and how we work. Her first book, Explaining Humans, won the Royal Society Science Book Prize.