Creativity in Science: Historical Illustrations and the Academic Paradigm

Koestler identifies creativity in terms of the ability of the individual to make analogies, the ability to recognize relationships between apparently unrelated events. Joseph Lister struggled with the unknown cause of sepsis, gangrene and suppuration in surgical wounds. Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis was immersed in his work to determine the cause of puerperal fever. Of many creative giants in the history of science, Walker places Pasteur among the best for his astonishing ability for seeing the salient factors of a problem. Boyer relates scholarship and creativity to academics who carry on research, publish, and perhaps relay to their students what they have discovered. Creativity is not easily defined nor explained, but the history of scientific discovery has provided some clues as to the nature of the creative person