10 | Tom McLeish on the poetry of science

How is science like art? In this episode, we talk about the similarities between the creative processes of science and art with Tom McLeish, a Fellow of the Royal Society and Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Dept. of Physics at the University of York in England. Tom has written a fascinating book entitled “The poetry and music of science”, where he discusses how we have everything to gain by better explaining  the creative scientific process. Tom also has an explanation of why the "a-ha" moment of discovery may occur particularly when stepping off of a bus. 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:29 Origins of creativity, an old question
• 6:54 Vision is the first stage of the creative process
• 12:19 Visualizing a problem and Plato’s Extramission
• 15:23 There is emotion in science
• 20:44 Constraints free you
• 24:02 What differs science from art?
• 27:14 How do creative moments arise?
• 34:20 Hidden continuity of ideas