Exceptional Creativity in Science and Technology: Individuals, Institutions, and Innovations - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1599474263 ISBN 13: 9781599474267

Verlag: Templeton Foundation Press,U.S., 2013

Inhaltsangabe

In the evolution of science and technology, laws governing exceptional creativity and innovation have yet to be discovered. In his influential study The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, the historian Thomas Kuhn noted that the final stage in a scientific breakthrough such as Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity—the most crucial step—was “inscrutable.” The same is still true half a century later.

 

Yet, there has been considerable progress in understanding many stages and facets of exceptional creativity and innovation. In Exceptional Creativity in Science and Technology, editor Andrew Robinson gathers diverse contributors to explore this progress. This new collection arises from a symposium with the same title held at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton. Organized by the John Templeton Foundation, the symposium had the late distinguished doctor and geneticist Baruch S. Blumberg as its chair. At the same time, its IAS host was the well-known physicist Freeman J. Dyson—both of whom have contributed chapters to the book. In addition to scientists, engineers, and an inventor, the book’s fifteen contributors include an economist, entrepreneurs, historians, and sociologists, all working at leading institutions, including Bell Laboratories, Microsoft Research, Oxford University, Princeton University, and Stanford University. Each contributor brings a unique perspective to the relationships between exceptional scientific creativity and innovation by individuals and institutions.

 

The diverse list of disciplines covered, the high-profile contributors (including two Nobel laureates), and their fascinating insights into this overarching question—how exactly do we make breakthroughs?—will make this collection of interest to anyone involved with the creative process in any context. Still, it will especially appeal to readers in scientific and technological fields.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Andrew Robinson is a former literary editor of the Times Higher Education Supplement in London. He is the author of some twenty-five books in the arts and sciences published by trade and academic publishers, which have been translated into fifteen languages. They include the biographies The Man Who Deciphered Linear B: The Story of Michael Ventris and Einstein: A Hundred Years of Relativity; and two studies of exceptional creativity in the arts and sciences: Sudden Genius? The Gradual Path to Creative Breakthroughs and Genius: A Very Short Introduction. His latest books are Cracking the Egyptian Code: The Revolutionary Life of Jean-François Champollion and, The Scientists: An Epic of Discovery, with contributions from scientists, historians of science, and science writers. A King’s Scholar of Eton College, he holds degrees from Oxford University and the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, and was a visiting fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge, from 2006–10.

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Exceptional Creativity in Science and Technology

Individuals, Institutions, and Innovations

By Andrew Robinson

Templeton Press

Copyright © 2013 Templeton Press
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-59947-426-7

Contents

Introduction Andrew Robinson, 
Chapter 1 The Rise and Decline of Hegemonic Systems of Scientific Creativity J. Rogers Hollingsworth and David M. Gear, 
Chapter 2 Exceptional Creativity in Physics: Two Case Studies—Niels Bohr's Copenhagen Institute and Enrico Fermi's Rome Institute Gino Segrè, 
Chapter 3 Physics at Bell Labs, 1949–1984: Young Turks and Younger Turks Philip W. Anderson, 
Chapter 4 The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge: The Physical Realization of an Electronic Computing Instrument at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 1930–1958 George Dyson, 
Chapter 5 Education and Exceptional Creativity: The Decoding of DNA and the Decipherment of Linear B Andrew Robinson, 
Chapter 6 The Sources of Modern Engineering Innovation David P. Billington and David P. Billington Jr., 
Chapter 7 Technically Creative Environments Susan Hackwood, 
Chapter 8 Entrepreneurial Creativity Timothy F. Bresnahan, 
Chapter 9 Scientific Breakthroughs and Breakthrough Products: Creative Activity as Technology Turns into Applications Tony Hey and Jonathan Hey, 
Chapter 10 A Billion Fresh Pairs of Eyes: The Creation of Self-Adjustable Eyeglasses Joshua Silver, 
Chapter 11 New Ideas from High Platforms: Multigenerational Creativity at NASA Baruch S. Blumberg, 
Afterword: From Michael Faraday to Steve Jobs Freeman Dyson, 
Contributors, 

CHAPTER 1

The Rise and Decline of Hegemonic Systems of Scientific Creativity

J. ROGERS HOLLINGSWORTH AND DAVID M. GEAR

ADDRESSING CREATIVITY at the level of a society has a long tradition, whether it be the ancient Greek city-state, sixteenth-century Florence, France during the Enlightenment, the United Kingdom during the Industrial Revolution, or other societies. In order to gain a fresh perspective on creativity in the contemporary world, this chapter extends the tradition by focusing on the rise and decline of creativity at the level of the nation-state during the past 250 years. Despite our focus on the societal level, we recognize that most acts of creativity occur at the level of the individual. But by aggregating acts of creativity, it becomes possible to analyze creativity at the level of a society, at the level of an organization (e.g., Bell Labs in the United States, the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in the United Kingdom, the Max-Planck Institutes in Germany; Rockefeller University in the United States), and at the level of a university department (e.g., physics at the University of Göttingen in the 1920s; the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge during much of the twentieth century).

Since the mid-eighteenth century, the most highly creative systems of science have been embedded only in those societies that were hegemons (from the ancient Greek word hegemon, meaning "leader"). A hegemonic power is one that exercises political, economic, and military supremacy over all other powers during a particular historic period. It was a society's economic, political, and military hegemonic power that gave birth to the creative scientific hegemon.

A scientific hegemon dominates multiple scientific fields and establishes the standards of excellence in most scientific fields. Its language is the major one used in scientific communication, and its scientific elite is the one most prominent in the world of science. It attracts more foreign young people for training than any other country. Its scientific culture tends to reflect society's culture. Scientific hegemons are embedded in societies that are economic, political, and military hegemons—but not all political, economic, and military hegemonic powers develop a hegemonic scientific system. However, modern hegemonic scientific systems exist only in societies that are political, economic, and military hegemons.

The process by which scientific hegemons emerged as well as declined varied from society to society—although the underlying explanation was the same in each society. When their systems began to decline, the elites in scientific hegemons often failed to understand this fact; indeed, they tended to believe that their systems were continuing to perform extraordinarily well. Only as a result of a retrospective analysis was a hegemonic system of science observed to have been in relative decline.

Figure 1 is a representation of the rise and decline of four hegemonic systems of science since the middle of the eighteenth century: French, German, British, and American.

FRENCH HEGEMONY

From around 1735 until the mid-nineteenth century, France led the world in scientific creativity—particularly in the fields of mathematics, physics, physiology, clinical medicine, zoology, and paleontology. A few of the most prominent French scientists of this period are listed in Table 1.

As France was a great power during the latter part of the eighteenth century, it is not surprising that it became a scientific hegemon. The world's leading scientific journals were published in France, the major scientific language was French, many of the world's most accomplished scientists were French, and large numbers of young people from all over Europe went to France for training. However, the turmoil brought about by the French Revolution and the military adventures of Napoleon Bonaparte had long-term negative effects on France's military, economic, and scientific influence. Of course, the decline of France's distinction in science did not occur all at once. Indeed, throughout the nineteenth century and even through the early years of the twentieth century, many of the world's most eminent scientists were French.

France's role as a scientific hegemon did not decline simply because of its relative decline in military, economic, and political power. There were inherent contradictions in French society that had profound implications for its science. Part of the problem was the centralization of French government. Before and somewhat after the French Revolution, the centralization of France was significant in accelerating the rapid growth of France's role in world affairs, including its system of science. But during the nineteenth and on into the twentieth century, centralization had an adverse effect on France's ability to adapt to many of the radical innovations occurring elsewhere in the world, especially in the rest of Europe.

This was, of course, not true of all aspects of French society. Indeed, in the first half of the nineteenth century, outstanding scientific research occurred in the Collège de France in Paris and in several of the grandes écoles. Moreover, even as basic science in France declined during the nineteenth century, the society excelled in the development of large-scale technological systems. Jean-Baptiste Colbert, late in the seventeenth century, led France in making it a world leader in this area, a tradition that continued into the twentieth century with the development of French trains and aircraft. Colbert was a pioneer in developing applied science through government activity. As a result, the French state developed an excellent system of schools to train technocrats: the École des Mines, the École des Ponts et Chaussées, the École de Génie Militaire, and the world-renowned École Polytechnique. At the École...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Templeton Foundation Press,U.S.
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2013
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1599474263
• ISBN 13: 9781599474267
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 264
• Herausgeber: Robinson Andrew
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Mare Nostrum Group B.V.; gpsr@mare-nostrum.co.uk; ; Doelen 72; Breda; 4831 GR; Niederlande