Creativity and Big Science

NOV 01, 1992

The idea of creativity in science is contemporary with the institution of the Nobel Prizes. To excel at today’s big science, however, may require a type of creativity different from that rewarded by the early Nobels.

DOI: 10.1063/1.881322

John L. Heilbron

Creativity and big science may sit uneasily together. Creativity is considered good in any amount; I do not recall ever hearing anyone complain of having more of it than he or she wanted. Big science, however, has its detractors. Some fret that it consumes resources better devoted to little science; others, that it routinizes work, bureaucratizes laboratory life and, to say the worst, suppresses creativity.

References

1. S. Ross, Ann. Sci. 18, 65 (1962).https://doi.org/ANNSA8
2. A. T. Poffenberger, ed., James McKeen Cattell, Man of Science, vols. 1 and 2, Science P., Lancaster, Pa. (1947).
3. P. Bayle, in A General Dictionary, Historical and Critical, J. P. Bernard et al., eds., G. Strahan et al., London (1734–41), vol. 7, p. 789.
4. C. Paul, Science and Morality: The Eloges of the Paris Academy of Sciences, 1699–1791, U. Calif. P., Berkeley (1980).
5. J. L. Heilbron, Dilemmas of an Upright Man: Max Planck as Spokesman for German Science, U. Calif. P., Berkeley (1986).
6. E. O. Lawrence, letter to M. Deutsch, 12 November 1946, E. O. Lawrence Papers, Bancroft Library, U. Calif., Berkeley.
7. R. Cool, letter to V. E. Parker, 28 March 1957, Cool Papers, Records Holding Area, Brookhaven Natl. Lab., Upton, N.Y.
8. S. A. Goudsmit, memorandum, 1956, Records Holding Area, Brookhaven Natl. Lab., Upton, N.Y.
9. D. J. de Solla Price, Little Science, Big Science, Columbia U.P., New York (1963).
S. Weart, in The Sciences in the American Context: New Perspectives, N. Reingold, ed., Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (1979) p. 295.
10. V. E. Thoren, The Lord of Uraniborg: A Biography of Tycho Brahe, Cambridge U.P., New York (1991).
J. L. E. Dryer, Tycho Brahe: A Picture of Scientific Life and Work in the 16th Century, Adam and Charles Black, Edinburgh (1890).
11. J. L. Heilbron, Elements of Early Modern Science, U. Calif. P., Berkeley (1982).
12. M. Oliphant, letter to E. O. Lawrence, 28 March 1956, E. O. Lawrence Papers, Bancroft Library, U. Calif., Berkeley. S. Cockburn, D. Ellyard, The Life and Times of Sir Mark Oliphant, Axiom Books, Adelaide, Australia (1981).
13. E. O. Lawrence, letter to M. Oliphant, 4 April 1956, E. O. Lawrence Papers, Bancroft Library, U. Calif., Berkeley.
14. E. Crawford, The Beginnings of the Nobel Institution: The Science Prizes, 1901–1915, Cambridge U.P., New York (1984).
15. J. L. Heilbron, R. W. Seidel, Lawrence and His Laboratory: A History of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, U. Calif. P., Berkeley (1989).
16. Science 176, 1405 (1972).https://doi.org/SCIEAS

More about the Authors

John L. Heilbron. University of California, Berkeley.