Box of delight

In his famous Rede Lecture of 1959, chemist and novelist C P Snow spoke of the separation of science and the humanities, and the lack of respect and understanding that often exists between the fields. He argued that this was detrimental to the future success of the country as many creative breakthroughs come from the interaction between the two cultures. Snow put a large part of the blame on what he called “our fanatical belief in educational specialisation” and focusing on “producing a tiny elite educated in one academic skill”. Unfortunately, not much seems to have changed.