Life sciences and medicine have produced a striking number of remarkably accomplished figures at the art–science interface. Why?
Before the camera, clinicians, anatomists, and naturalists had to draw what they saw. Artistic competence was part of training. Diagnosing disease or discerning a new cellular structure depends on acute visual discrimination—the same perceptual skills artists hone.
Artistic sensibility is not an adornment, it is part of the toolkit. Recognizing this synergy could enrich how we train future scientists and inspire other fields to reclaim their own ties to the arts.
