Hamming’s “open doors” and group creativity as keys to scientific excellence: The example of Cambridge

SummaryDr. Charlton used diverse approaches to identify research institutions which provided home to outstanding scientists and work. One intriguing example of long-lasting scientific excellence is Cambridge with 19 Nobel laureates who worked at the University or at the MRC Molecular Biology Unit when they received the prize between 1947 and 2006. With specific reference to Cambridge, I would like to complement the primarily quantitative assessment and offer considerations as to why and how research achievements may have clustered in space and time. Indeed, observations voiced by the mathematician Richard Hamming as to how great research can be pursued offer explanations for the series of great science in the UK. In my view, the most important determinant of the clustering may be illustrated by Hamming’s fitting picture of “open doors”: working in environments with the doors open allows constant interactions with peers with various disciplinary backgrounds, and thus fast avoidance of detours or dead ends in science and, ultimately, a focus on and the solution of problems of paramount, rather than of tangential, importance. Narrative insights into a strong argumentative tradition at Cambridge provided by Drs. Watson and Magueijo between 1968 and 2003 are in line with Hamming’s suggestion and the value of group creativity. In the internet age with abundant interactions beyond home institutions we should not be surprised if clusters of great science were no longer confined to the usual suspect institutions which were awarded disproportionally with Nobel prizes in the past.