  However, when a specialist starts research on phenomena of a new kind she is in the same situation as a layperson: she does not know what and how to observe. She does not recognize certain forms, she experiences chaos in which it is very hard to grasp anything constant. This is why—as it was mentioned above—scholars cannot start from gathering experimental data. Fleck also stresses that there is no spontaneous creation of concepts (1935a, II.1). This is why a new research starts usually—although not always—from proto-ideas which often are of a religious or philosophical character, which had existed centuries before they acquired a scientific character. For example, long before Copernicus there was a proto-idea of a heliocentric system, before Lavoisier—a proto-idea of chemical elements, before Dalton—a proto-idea of atom, and before Leeuwenhoek—a proto-idea of microbe (1935a, II.2). Proto-ideas are vague, and therefore in the scientific understanding they cannot be considered as true or false. (Even though they were true for the members of corresponding thought collectives). But they can become a point of departure for investigation.