How Important Is Creativity in Science?

 by Sami Littlefair

‘If I have seen further, it is by standing
on the shoulders of Giants’ (Sir Isaac Newton)

Creativity: the basis on which science thrives. Creativity is not a skill taught in school, but true creativity is an art held only by true pioneers. In an area where everything is out there to be discovered, and nothing is simply given to us, it is as important as ever. Most children will sit through and learn what is required of them, and some may enjoy it more than others; but the fact that children today are able to learn about the make-up of our world, everything to do with it and beyond, is down to the intellectual and creative genius of our predecessors and scientists today who have mastered their field. I consider myself lucky; the work has been done for me, and all I need to do is learn about discoveries that have been made. However, I am interested in delving deeper than is required of me to discover the truths about origins of topics, to discover the true creativity of scientists who allow me and billions around the globe to gain knowledge of these topics every day. 

I will begin by talking about Pythagoras, a Greek scientist and mathematician. One prediction in particular from Pythagoras blew me away, a prediction that truly showed how accurate someone with an ingeniously creative mind can be. Pythagoras predicted, using only careful timing of observing lunar eclipses, that the Moon was approximately one third the diameter of the Earth. The actual relation is 1:0.27, but the fact that Pythagoras was able to predict the relative size so accurately using only lunar eclipse observations, which had never been done before, whilst today, 2500 years on, we have precise telescopes, radar observations and laser reflectors, shows true creative genius. No one was teaching Pythagoras the best methods of how to calculate this relative distance. It came from his own mind. 

I have talked about a pioneer in true creativity, and now I will talk about modern-day creativity: genome editing. If you told anyone who didn’t live in the late 20th century that humans would be able to genetically replicate and edit genomes, they would have laughed at you. I am going to explore a short timeline of key events to discover the true creativity applied in this incredible field of biology. The year is 1956. Two scientists, named James Watson and Francis Crick, discovered the double helix: the structure of DNA. This discovery would prove to be the backbone of all genetic discoveries to follow, and it was the creativity of these two scientists that shone light onto this new world of genetics. No one was advising them what to do, nor pointing out their mistakes. When you are a pioneer in an area of science, you have to use your knowledge, your creativity, and your experience to find results. 

This discovery, as I have said, opened up a whole new world of science to be discovered. In 1996, Exactly forty years later, Dolly the sheep was replicated. A mere three years after that, a human chromosome was sequenced for the very first time. In the length of half a lifetime, humans had gone from discovering the makeup of DNA, to being able to sequence human chromosomes. No one sat down with these scientists and helped them through the way, or taught them everything about this topic like we have access to today. They got the results through dedication, perseverance, and, most importantly, creativity. 

These two examples are just that: examples. There are countless more out there, which all hone in on the same point: I, and countless others, are able to sit in a classroom and have all of this knowledge given to us to learn. We have this privilege because of the creative genius of scientists before us, and their willingness to delve into unknown topics, and find answers to the endless questions science presents us with. It is now our job to continue to explore the unknown. On behalf of all students across the world, I give our thanks. In the words of Sir Isaac Newton, ‘If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.’