In this PLOScast, Elizabeth Sevier speaks with Eamon Duede, Executive Director, Knowledge Lab about the science behind how new scientific discoveries come into existence. This is the first part of a two part series discussing the use of large-scale computation to help understand how knowledge comes into existence. For full show notes, see http://blogs.plos.org/plospodcasts/2016/12/27/the-science-of-science-part-1-an-interview-with-eamon-duede/