I like to think about it as an intuitive and creative process backed by logic and rigorous testing. The foundations are data and evidence. But the most exciting part of it is to create new knowledge, invent new technology, find new solutions. How are the ordered logic of scientific reasoning and the irrational mind wandering of intuition connected? Can I see them literally connect?
Imagine you are a researcher. Think of data as dots: a new dot is created every time you understand how something works. Scientists read and study a lot in order to have a huge catalog of information, or dots. Some dots will connect with others, others will be floating alone at first.
Then you read about some topic, maybe apparently unrelated to the others, but then something clicks and you realise: “hey wait, these pieces of information may actually be linked!“. It is possible that you do not grasp why and how they might be connected, but somehow you know it makes sense for them to be. So the link is created. It is weak, temporary, you need something for it to become stable, covalent. This is where rigorous experimental design and testing comes into play.
Now imagine your experiments prove that your intuition was correct. Something magical happens: a new dot appears! This time not from something you read from someone else’s research, but from your own. This new dot is a new discovery, new invention, new solution. The result of an intuition born from evidence. This new dot simultaneously reinforces that new link and opens possibility for new dots and connections.
What if you prove the intuition is wrong? (it happens!) The weak link desegregates, but a new dot is still created, because you still obtained new information. This will be linked to other dots. All this will help you obtain a new intuition somehow.
As the process continues, new connections form, old ones rearrange, exciting new things arise.