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Originally posted by MichiganMat
This is a somewhat interesting discussion. I graduated from U of M (which we all know kicks the crap out of CalTech)
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we aren't talking football. or basketball. or baseball...
Right now, there is a lot of cycles being spent on creativity and innovation (USC just stole the Damasios, and they work on that very topic:
http://www.usc.edu/uscnews/stories/11734.html). It was interesting at Caltech because I had colleagues who had amazing work habits and cranked out results and papers like there was no tomorrow. But when it came time to do props exam (which amounted to coming up with new research ideas), they struggled. I otoh, could barely bring myself to the bench, would work in fits and starts, and got enough results to get an answer, then move onto the next thing. A props, I had way too many ideas to write up.
I think it is a combination of nature v. nurture, but in order to function in today's environment, you need to have some pretty good chops, and should understand technology to some degree. The sad thing is that science has been so poorly taught over the years, people have been turned off to it, and miss the applicability to everyday life, and more importantly, how it can spark creativity. An understanding of the elegance of nature's solutions to problems serves as a deep well to dip into for inspiration, no matter what the subject matter.
Oh, and it helps to be an artist/musician on the side. Interesting that quite a few of the best scientists I knew also had a serious creative streak.