Skip Main Navigation
outline goes here
The Lancet, Volume 357, Issue 9250, Page 148, 13 January 2001
doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(05)71189-2Cite or Link Using DOI

The idea and the experiment

Henry Gans a
Whoever believes that “the expression of fantasy in abstract painting and music is superior to those in science”, as John Martin does1 should think again.
The leaps in abstract thinking by an Einstein, Planck, Bohr, or Feynman2 represent an intellectual activity few are capable of, since it requires an intimate knowledge of higher mathematics and physics that not many can muster. Besides, the flights of their imagination were unique and you wonder, would someone else ever have come up with the same solutions?
The major breakthroughs in science, especially in modern science, are no less than any artistic innovations by a Debussy, Stravinsky, or Schoenberg, or paintings by Manet, Cezanne, Picasso, or David Smith. In fact, modern art has benefited from more science, as Picasso and Braque were the first to admit, rather than the other way around. For the lesser contributions Ortega y Gasset noted that experimental science has progressed thanks mainly to the work of men who are astoundingly mediocre and even less than mediocre.3
Art is generally subjectively oriented, whereas science is mostly motivated by a desire to understand the world, even if the two disciplines make use of the same intuitive thinking. And, just as we would do as well without certain paintings (as an art and antiques dealer for the past 15 years I have become convinced that many are over-rated) and presumably many poems, novels, or musical compositions as well, in second-rank science someone else eventually will be there to make the same discoveries that keep rekindling the priority issue.
Contemporary physics or cosmology speak mostly to a small intellectual elite, but art is far more democratic in its appeal and its audience is commonly less discerning or discriminating. The rewards of both flights of fancy is in the beauty of the solutions they offer. As one tubercular doctor and poet once put it: A thing of beauty is a joy forever ..! (Don't you wonder what Beethoven might have done with Endymion?)


1 Martin J. The idea is more important than the experiment. Lancet 2000; 356: 934-937. Full Text | PDF(59KB) | PubMed
2 Kleppner D, Jackiw R. One hundred years of quantum physics. Science 2000; 289: 893-898. PubMed
3 Ortega Y Gasse J. The rebellion of the masses. Norton, 1932.
a Department of Surgery and Biochemistry, New York Hospital, New York, NY 10021, USA
Access this article on ScienceDirect
Visit ScienceDirect to see if you have access via your institution.
Article Options
Full Text
PDF (51 KB)
Printer Friendly Version
Export Citation
Create Citation Alert