A close friend and colleague emailed the other day and asked “How is creative “drive” or creativity defined so that you can look for it?”

This is a somewhat distinct question from the related Krasnow scientific question of recognizing/studying fluid intelligence (or “g” as it is called).

It’s also very closely related to what my job is about, since as an institute director, probably the most important requirement is to recruit and retain the “talent”.

The glib answer of course is that I recognize it when I see it, even if I might not be able to define it. But I think that’s not a particularly satisfying answer. Instead, I would put forward the notion of someone who has both depth and breadth of knowledge (in whatever field) yet remains essentially curious about the nature of the world around them. I believe that it’s the curiosity part that drives the creativity part. If your curious about the world, then that implies a drive to learn more about the world (in spite of knowledge), which in turn drives the creative quest to devise new ways to learn more.

In science of course this happens within the structure of Popperian hypothesis testing (usually).

Jim

I arrived in Woods Hole this evening. It is hot and muggy but there is a nice wind off the water.

My sister and her husband took me out to lunch at the Harvard Club. It was fabulous. Drew Faust, the new Harvard President was there presiding over a large lunch party. Across from our table, I heard mention of Torsten Wiesel, Nobel laureate and vision neuroscientist and it reminded me of how very much Harvard neuroscience has contributed to the field over the years.

Tomorrow is the MBL corporation meeting. My report on the Journal (Biological Bulletin) is part of the drill. Our impact factor is at a ten year high–proof that a historically significant journal can also play a role in 21st century science. In the evening, there will be the dedication of the new Rowe Laboratories—the former Whitman Building, where Krasnow’s Professor Ascoli and I cut our teeth studying sea urchin fertilization.

Jim

Benedict Carey has an excellent piece in today’s NY Times on the mind. Money quote:

More fundamentally, the new studies reveal a subconscious brain that is far more active, purposeful and independent than previously known. Goals, whether to eat, mate or devour an iced latte, are like neural software programs that can only be run one at a time, and the unconscious is perfectly capable of running the program it chooses.

The give and take between these unconscious choices and our rational, conscious aims can help explain some of the more mystifying realities of behavior, like how we can be generous one moment and petty the next, or act rudely at a dinner party when convinced we are emanating charm.

I try to stress this regularly to our PI’s: if you don’t go fishing, you can be sure you wont catch any fish.

Over the next academic year, I’ll be meeting individually with all of our PI’s to discuss their grants strategies.

Jim

I took a quick walk through the new building again today. The new labs
are ready to go and I'm expecting the first of our new faculty members
to arrive this evening at Dulles Airport.

I'm off to a meeting at the Law School and then fighting the get-away
traffic west. I'll be in our Wintergreen retreat this evening (if the
highway deities are willing).

Jim

Two important items relevant to the Institute made today’s on-line edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education. In the first, the House version of the DOD appropriation’s bill would cap overhead reimbursements at 20% on competitive research grants. This is a very big deal since the typical overhead reimbursement rate is currently around 50% for US Research Universities.

The second item concerns the migration of Vernon’s Smith’s experimental economic group–which is moving to Chapman University (a non-PHD granting private institution in Orange County California)–minus our own Kevin McCabe, who is quoted extensively in the interview. Kevin heads up our Neuroeconomics Center. I am delighted that he is staying at George Mason–and of course, our Brain Imaging Center is a key tool to his work, that simply wouldn’t be available at Chapman.

Jim

The Chronicle of Higher Education’s afternoon edition reports that SCIENCE has decided to pull out of the J-Stor archive since its own content (back to 1880) is now on-line. I’m not so sure that’s a wise move though. J-Stor’s value lies in a scholar’s ability to search across journals.

Jim

The new wing passed its final fire alarm test. With that, the certificate of occupancy should be issued in Richmond, and we can begin to do science in the new space.

Meanwhile….my colleague and fellow blogger Tyler Cowan has written a new book, Discover Your Inner Economist. It’s gotten great reviews and seems like a great explanation for Tyler’s unique ability to live life really well. Tyler’s blog can be found here.

Jim

Here is a photo of one of the pioneers of modern integrative neuroscience, Karl Pribram at the meeting. The meeting participants were feted by a chamber music concert in the famous Residenz Palace in the Center of the City. Of course the music was entirely Mozart. Two people to his right is my graduate student, Mike Cloud.

Jim

I am back from a very enjoyable conference in Salzburg which I’ll soon describe at some length. Central Europe is suffering from a terrible heat wave and without the ubiquitous air conditioning that we have here in Washington D.C., sleeping in the evening was pretty rough. Nevertheless, the company and talks more than made up for it.

So I’m back for two weeks or so, before heading off to Wood Hole. I’ll try to upload some photos later today.

Jim