Editor's note

The great discoveries of our time are often lauded as triumphs of the scientific method. But what about the creative inspiration that sparks the initial idea? Tom McLeish, who has experienced scientific theories coming to him on wooded hillsides and in dreams, laments our lack of consideration of what comes before the methodology, because science, he argues, demands just as much creative inspiration as art.

When we try to imagine future civilisations living in harmony with nature, we often struggle. That’s because the past is taught as a history of empires, kings and conquest, where “progress” often had terrible outcomes for different cultures and other species. To imagine a future beyond the ravages of climate change, we should rethink the lessons human history has taught us, says Amanda Power.

The pressure in the deepest parts of the ocean is so intense it can distort the molecules that make up living creatures – so how do fish and other species survive there? Claire Lacey explains, in the latest instalment of Curious Kids, a series by experts, for children.

Josephine Lethbridge

Interdisciplinary Editor

Top stories

IR Stone/Shutterstock.com

We talk about artistic inspiration all the time – but scientific inspiration is a thing too

Tom McLeish, University of York

We talk about artistic inspiration all the time – but science demands inspiration too.

‘American Progress’ by John Gast. Wikipedia

Climate change: narrate a history beyond the ‘triumph of humanity’ to find imaginative solutions

Amanda Power, University of Oxford

Progress, in historical terms, has so often meant clearing places of their native inhabitants – both human and non-human.

Angler fish haunt the deep seas. Shutterstock.

Curious Kids: how do creatures living in the deep sea stay alive given the pressure?

Claire Lacey, University of St Andrews

The pressure in the deepest part of the ocean can be 1,000 times greater than the pressure we experience at sea level – but creatures that live and visit there have some very special features.

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