Letters; October 2005; Scientific American Mind; by Staff Editor; 2 Page(s)

Bright ideas shone forth on many pages in Scientific American Mind issue Number 1 for 2005, starting with the image on the cover itself. "Unleashing Creativity," by Ulrich Kraft, offered suggestions for tapping the inner muse. David Dobbs's "Fact or Phrenology?" explored the search for the mind arising from the activity of intricate physical mechanisms in the brain. "Neuroscience and the Law," by Michael S. Gazzaniga and Megan S. Steven, posited that a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying behavior could absolve criminals of fault--something to think about. More about these topics--and others--follow below for readers with curious minds.

Ulrich Kraft's "Unleashing Creativity" confuses artistic ability with lateral thinking. There is a difference between "thinking outside the box," which is really the subject of Kraft's discussion, and innate artistic abilities, such as drawing, musicianship or creative writing, which require genetic inheritance as well as a cultural environment to develop. Kraft equates creative problem solving with artistic skills, but they are different entities that sometimes coexist.