unmired..................

 

     Specifically, NASA was unable to predict solar particle storms, radioactive material spewed by the sun that can gravely damage astronauts and the equipment they depend on.  Solar physicists were understandably skeptical that outsiders could help, but after three decades of being stuck, there was nothing to lose; NASA posted through InnoCentive in 2009.  Within six months, Bruce Cragin, an engineer retired from Sprint Nextel and living in rural New Hampshire, solved the challenge using radio waves picked up by telescopes.  Pre-retirement, Cragin had collaborated with scientists, and found that those specialist teams often got mired in working out small details at the expense of practical solutions.  "I think it helped me being out of that," he said, "having moved on."  A NASA official noted, diplomatically, that "there was some resistance" to Cragin's solution at first, "because it was using a different methodology."

-David Epstein, Range:  Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World