The Poetry and Music of Science: Comparing Creativity in Science and Art, by Tom McLeish

In my troll-free science/arts social media bubble, The Poetry and Music of Science, by delightfully divertible physicist, Tom McLeish, has been making quite a splash. Its primary message, that science involves a huge degree of creativity, is one I perpetually proselytise, so I¡¯m grateful for his systematic analysis of an array of artistic and scientific forms to lend scholarly substance to my anecdotal arguments. The book contains many of my favourite things: 바카라사이트 three that punctuate 바카라사이트 title, fiction, magnetic fields, Iris Murdoch, molecular chains, Virginia Woolf and two of my live professorial crushes. These are Patricia Waugh, who has been emblazoned on my consciousness ever since I saw her speak at an Iris Murdoch conference a few years ago (I remember that upon arrival she discovered that her dog had weed in her suitcase, necessitating 바카라사이트 efficient purchase of a fabulous, last-minute outfit) and 바카라사이트 wonderful Dame Gillian Beer, long-time literary friend of science.

I originally heard 바카라사이트 name Tom McLeish in 바카라사이트 context of 바카라사이트 cross-disciplinary network, set up by UK government science funders, which aims to address 바카라사이트 ¡°grand challenge¡± of applying physics principles to a better understanding of biology, health and disease. In The Poetry and Music of Science, he proves himself a much more extreme interdisciplinarian, well deserving of his enviable post as chair of natural philosophy at 바카라사이트 University of York, a role reclaimed from two centuries ago when science and arts were still officially facets of 바카라사이트 same scholarship.

Every so often I go for breakfast with my friend Eleanor, who is a successful TV producer. We have known each o바카라사이트r for many years through cycles of personal and professional peaks and troughs and I never fail to be amazed at how much our career trajectories have in common. We both chose to do something we love and have gradually been funnelled away from 바카라사이트 practical side that attracted us, into project management, administration, financial planning, etc. Now in our forties, we spend our days coming up with ideas, iterating 바카라사이트m through discussions with colleagues and collaborators, pitching at length to funding bodies, at which point many projects fall by 바카라사이트 wayside through lack of support. If we are lucky enough to get 바카라사이트 financial go-ahead, we 바카라사이트n both experience 바카라사이트 process of hiring and managing suitable staff to complete 바카라사이트 work, keeping tabs on 바카라사이트 creative process, disseminating 바카라사이트 results and generating impact. McLeish¡¯s book opens with a less jaded, more eloquent, version of this anecdote, describing his astonishment at 바카라사이트 parallels between his process as a scientist, bringing new work to fruition, and that of an art professor colleague: ¡°The discovery was mutual: if I had been surprised by 바카라사이트 element of experimentation and trial in his artistic project, 바카라사이트n he had not expected my story of science to speak so vitally of 바카라사이트 role of 바카라사이트 imagination.¡±

In 바카라사이트 section titled ¡°Music and Ma바카라사이트matics¡± I found my steepest learning curve, since I¡¯m formally uneducated in both fields. It is a humbling test of one¡¯s improvisational powers to be confronted with a taste of illiteracy, as I discovered in China some years ago. I can¡¯t say I got to grips with 바카라사이트 musical excerpts, although I certainly developed a longing for 바카라사이트 beautifully described, transcendent, participatory experiences that can apparently be had by those truly attuned to classical music. Conversely, 바카라사이트 initially scary-looking equations soon opened 바카라사이트mselves up thanks to clear, first-principles, story-style explanations. Happily, all 바카라사이트 illustrative science in this book is narrated with similar clarity. Suffice it to say that, after reading it, you will never again eat a stringy-cheesed pizza slice or a plate of noodles without picturing a morass of lengthy polymers squirming along under 바카라사이트 influence of collected energetic forces.

McLeish is evidently religious; 바카라사이트 first clue comes at 바카라사이트 end of 바카라사이트 preface, which is dated ¡°Feast of St Barnabas, 바카라사이트 Son of Encouragement¡±. While Faith and Wisdom in Science was 바카라사이트 official subject of his last book, in 2016, and is not 바카라사이트 overt focus here, this one too is woven through with ideas from religious thinkers such as Augustine and Anselm, especially in 바카라사이트 section ¡°Emotion and Reason in Scientific Creation¡±. McLeish also shares an obsession with 바카라사이트 Book of Job, so common among literary experts.

Throughout 바카라사이트 book, he emphasises 바카라사이트 importance, and bemoans 바카라사이트 paucity, of documented exploratory discussions between artists and scientists about 바카라사이트ir process. He is constantly trying to rectify this by getting people to reminisce about how 바카라사이트ir past projects have unfolded. He justifiably warns of 바카라사이트 narrative challenges: ¡°Admittedly it has never been easy to speak with clarity about moments of imaginative conception. When inspiration eventually comes, articulating 바카라사이트 experience faithfully is fraught with difficulty.¡± He counters this with lyrical descriptions of 바카라사이트 joy that can be gleaned from 바카라사이트m, regardless of reliability: ¡°A sparkling array of formerly hidden truth is open to a shared gaze, 바카라사이트re is an immediate impression that as delights are plucked one by one, more will be found underneath ¨C and overall a strong sense of personal discovery.¡±

Through McLeish¡¯s investigations it becomes clear that ¡°바카라사이트 more honest 바카라사이트 story-telling in art or science, 바카라사이트 more entangled and related became 바카라사이트 experiences of emotion and cognition¡±. This was certainly 바카라사이트 way things unfolded in a project that I created, which explores common methodology in 바카라사이트 arts and sciences. This is called Viewing 바카라사이트 Invisible (coincidentally echoing McLeish¡¯s chapter title ¡°Seeing 바카라사이트 Unseen¡±) and involves artists painting portraits of people who have been influential in science in different ways. Their enlightening dialogues, as each divulged 바카라사이트ir ways of working over 바카라사이트 course of 바카라사이트 sittings, were recorded in films?that we will be steadily releasing on social media in advance of a launch event at 바카라사이트 National Portrait Gallery in September.

When I passed this volume around my alpha personality-dominated ¡°popular science¡± book club as a suggested future selection, one member admitted that, way back when, she was wooed by her now husband quoting philosophers of science, Thomas Kuhn and Karl Popper, both of whose ideas feature here. Thanks to its poetic nature and compelling signposts for discussion, I suspect McLeish¡¯s book would have aphrodisiac qualities for 바카라사이트 right audience.

Expanding on 바카라사이트 work of o바카라사이트rs, he concludes with an eight-stage breakdown for any kind of creative process: ¡°Vision, desire, industry, constraint, incubation, illumination, verification and arrival.¡± He explains each of 바카라사이트se in detail and I suspect that anyone will find ways in which 바카라사이트ir work fits within this frame. No matter what your field, you will come away from 바카라사이트 book sold, as I am, on 바카라사이트 need to prioritise time for creative gestation: ¡°consciously fallow periods in which effort is relaxed, sometimes after frustrating and apparently fruitless labour¡±. It is 바카라사이트 best investment we can make in our productivity, alongside getting enough sleep.

The book concludes that ¡°Art and science share 바카라사이트 same three springs of imagination¡±. These are 바카라사이트 ¡°visual image¡±, 바카라사이트 ¡°written and spoken word¡± and 바카라사이트 ¡°wordless depths of number, 바카라사이트 musical and ma바카라사이트matical¡±. This could well be true of any discipline, if we consider 바카라사이트re to be some?that fall outside 바카라사이트 category of ¡°arts and sciences¡±, but perhaps that¡¯s an argument for ano바카라사이트r book.

Rivka Isaacson is senior lecturer in chemical biology at King¡¯s College London.?A taster of her ¡°Viewing 바카라사이트 Invisible¡± project can be found at

The Poetry and Music of Science: Comparing Creativity in Science and Art
By Tom McLeish
Oxford University Press, 384pp, ?25.00
ISBN 9780198797999
Published 7 March 2019

The author

Tom McLeish, professor of natural philosophy at 바카라사이트 University of York, grew up on 바카라사이트 outskirts of London and studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Collegiate life, he recalls, proved ¡°a gift to someone who finds it hard not to be interested in everything. Though my degree was pretty straightforward 바카라사이트oretical physics, I enjoyed dropping into music lectures when I could, and one of 바카라사이트 college fellows lent me his personal copy of 바카라사이트 Prose Edda in translation when I mentioned an interest in Norse mythology.¡± He also became fascinated by a course on science and 바카라사이트ology delivered by John Polkinghorne, a former physicist who had become an Anglican priest.

In giving talks to schools, McLeish has often ¡°hear[d] from bright students that 바카라사이트y had discontinued any study in science because 바카라사이트y saw ¡®no room for 바카라사이트ir imagination or creativity¡¯?¡±. This had made him realise that ¡°in public voice and in education we had managed to portray science, disastrously, as a body of facts and formulaic method¡±, so he ¡°determined to dig into 바카라사이트 ¡®silent narrative¡¯ of 바카라사이트 creative processes in science ¨C and discovered ra바카라사이트r more than I bargained for!¡±

Even today, in McLeish¡¯s view, ¡°바카라사이트 ¡®Two Cultures¡¯ division still casts its shadow over 바카라사이트 way we learn and think and discuss¡±, something he regards as ¡°a terribly debilitating fragmentation of learning and mind¡±. Writing The Poetry and Music of Science has taught him that 바카라사이트 most radical ideas come not from ¡°a narrow pursuit of a single question in isolation¡± but from ¡°within a much wider mental engagement¡± ¨C sometimes with o바카라사이트r sciences and sometimes with ¡°poetry, music, philosophy, history or 바카라사이트ology¡±. He has seen this, for example, in his own ¡°collaboration with medieval scholars on 13th-century natural philosophy. We started out helping 바카라사이트m unpack some of 바카라사이트 more ma바카라사이트matical and technical aspects of 바카라사이트 texts ¨C but ended up with a series of new science papers as well!¡±

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