学进去

Contrary to popular opinion, the scientific pursuit for knowledge is not a predictable and well-defined process. To make new discoveries, researchers need the freedom to be creative, fail, and learn by chance. There is the romantic idea of the scientist who has an Eureka moment (顿悟时刻) and suddenly arrives at new insights. Another impression is that research only involves formal steps. Neither of those ideas is correct.

“Science and art are two different ways to make something understandable or imaginable,” says Biochemistry Professor Dolf Weijers. “From the outside, the research process looks very formal and the artistic process looks somewhat messy. But the scientific process can also unfold (展开) in an unpredictable way. Creative and associative thinking is very important for scientists to gain insight and make connections.”

There is an intersection (交叉点) between science and art. This is why Wageningen scientists look to artists for inspiration and exchange ideas about how to amplify creative freedom. Weijers and his colleague Joris Sprakel, together with other scientists and artists, have designed a plan to learn from each other and to exchange ideas. One example is the recent and special project in which they measured the forces that act on plant cells. A molecular (分子) sensor was used to visualise the different forces. They revealed the results in colourful images, each representing a different force.

What science and art also have in common is that they are topics of discussion in society. There are people who say that they do not value art and people who mistrust science. “It often creates the wrong impression because only the results of scientific studies are presented, and people do not have any insight into the artistic process leading to discovery. As a scientist, you are criticised if you say that something is different a few years later. Then you are viewed as unreliable. But what is often poorly understood is that there are no final results in science,” says Weijers.