I disagree with the author. It's not like scientists today are robots who only study in their field and have no interest in arts at all. With the quantity of scientists in existence you're going to get a vast array of varying interests outside their fields. I fact I would say many people are inspired to become scientists by arts such as science fiction; we don't need formal education as priests or monks to have “mystery and wonder” as she puts it. Likewise with artists, there are lots of artists who are interested in and inspired by science.

Secondly, as knowledge progresses it's necessary that we specialize more, or at least some of us do. It takes an entire lifetime to get to the root of today's scientific mysteries, which was not the case 200 years ago. All the low hanging fruit has been picked. So again, dedicating a significant portion of a scientist's life to religious "magic" is only going to be detrimental to that cause.

[–] tb_ 4 points 7 months ago

Science is very much an art in and of itself; breaking ground and figuring out how to set up a new process/experiment doesn't come from thin air.