Abstract
It is emphasized that creativity is characterized by the discovery of new connections among conceptual or substantive matters or both. Motivation and persistence play a very important role in an individual's pursuit of the creative process. A person's capacity for thought generally needs to be learned. The discovery of the manner in which one's mind can be used in the creative process is in itself very fascinating. How the brain actually works is very poorly comprehended at this time. That need not inhibit its use or the development of its capacity as best one can.
In scientific creativity, there is a very strong interplay between experiment and theory with both aspects of science evolving together. The prime feature of the scientific method is the use of evidence to justify conclusions. No matter how persuasive a concept, a model or a theory appears to be, until it is confirmed by observation it remains only a hypothesis.
As an illustration of scientific creativity, a developing technique for determining the atomic arrangements in macromolecules is discussed. This technique takes advantage of the anomalous dispersion of an incident X-ray beam. Anomalous dispersion arises from absorption processes in atoms that comprise the structure, and the net effect is a pattern of X-ray scattering that contains more information than would be obtained if the scattering were normal.
In a postscript, the question is raised whether an enhanced sensitivity to creativity throughout societies could materially diminish man's destructive and exploitive predilections.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.