Flight from Wonder

Albert Rothenberg

This is the first empirical investigation of scientific creativity based on research interviews with living Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry, and physiology or medicine, whose formulations are compared to those of a control group of engineering faculty members. Findings were that three cognitive creative processes described herein - janusian, homospatial, and sep-con articulation - as well as strong motivation, passion, and other accompanying emotions, were responsible for creative breakthroughs leading to outstanding scientific discoveries in the Nobel laureate group.