Art of the Soluble
In the conventional wisdom the scientist is pictured as a data gatherer, methodically working towards general scientific laws by objective research and painstaking observation.
But scientific creation is really more complex and more inspiring than this. It depends up on an imaginative leap akin to that of the poet, and an ability to select problems that allow for that leap.
This beautifully written work was hugely influential when first published, and continues to inspire today.
As neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran says, 'it makes science seem like a grand, romantic adventure yet also fun’.
Sir Peter Medawar shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1960, for work which helped pave the way for transplant surgery, and was recognized later in life as a scientific philosopher and writer. He died in 1987.