Hit a glitch in your research? Some ‘night science’ thinking could move it forward
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Itai Yanai and Martin Lercher describe a tool to develop creative thinking in science.
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The French biologist and Nobel prizewinner François Jacob talked about day and night science as part of the creative process that underpins research. The former, he argued in his 1988 autobiography, is a “cold, orderly logic” leading to a conclusion of the kind that gets covered in seminars and papers. Night science, in contrast, is a “stumbling, wandering exploration of the natural world.”
In the first episode of a six-part series about creativity in science, Itai Yanai and Martin Lercher describe how they apply the day/night science concept in their own research and collaborations. Yanai, who studies gene regulation and cellular plasticity at New York University Grossman School of Medicine, recalls telling his lab colleagues to change tack when they get stuck: “We need to snap out of this. We need to zoom out. We need to pop out into the world of night science, into the world of ideas, where we’re going to have to use abstract thinking. We’re going to use every trick we got, And that’s going to give us the way forward.”
Yanai and Lercher, a computational cell biologist at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, Germany, co-host the Night Science podcast and run workshops outlining the tools required to make science more creative alongside the “executive” process such as running experiments, applying for grants and writing papers.
The two compare performers that pivot between musical genres (Bob Dylan from folk to rock, for example, and Beyoncé from R&B to country) to scientists who change disciplines, bringing the fresh thinking of a “beginner’s mind” to a particular challenge. “You hold no allegiance, no loyalty to any particular idea. Everything is on the table,” concludes Yanai.
Future episodes will explore different approaches to cultivating creativity in science.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-01294-1
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Transcript
Itai Yanai and Martin Lercher describe a tool to develop creative thinking in science.
Itai Yanai 00:08
When I hear a big idea, when I discover a big idea, it just gives me goosebumps and inspires this, this feeling of awe. And in a sense, I’ve become like an awe junkie.
David Payne 00:19
This is Creativity in Science, a series brought to you by Nature Careers.
Itai Yanai 00:25
...but it was more like a different kind of mindset, like, okay, we need to snap out of this. We need to zoom out. We need to pop out.
David Payne 00:34
...a podcast about how science and creativity go hand in hand, and about how one can nurture the other.
Itai Yanai 00:44
....where we’re going to have to use abstract thinking. We’re going to use every trick we got, and that’s going to give us the way forward.
David Payne 00:54
First up, we meet two researchers who urge scientists to combine what they call the grind of day science with a more Promethean night science.
Itai Yanai 01:14
So I’m Israeli. I’m a professor at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine, where I study gene regulation and cellular plasticity.
And together with my good friend and science buddy, Martin Lercher, we study the creative side of the scientific process.
Martin Lercher 01:32
I’m Martin Lercher. I’m a professor of computational cell biology at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Itai Yanai 01:40
In my lab we were using this terminology that François Jacob came up with, called day science and night science.
And whenever we were stuck, whenever somebody was stuck in the lab, my advice was, “well, I guess we’re gonna have to do some night science.”
And it didn’t mean that, literally, it would have to be at night.
Although it did involve that many times as well. But it was more like a different kind of mindset, like, “okay, we need to snap out of this. We need to zoom out. We need to pop out into the world of night science, into the world of ideas, where we’re going to have to use abstract thinking. We’re going to use every trick we got, And that’s going to give us the way forward.”
And so I told this to Martin, and he was interested, and he said okay, let’s give it a shot. And we started working on what we call the Night Science Project.
So then we did the podcast, and then from the podcast, we got invited to do workshops.
And then from the workshops, it became a nonprofit organization, and really led to the magic of this thing unfolding.
Martin Lercher 02:57
So what we think, what is really crucial to understand th