The BBC on Da Vinci and Modern Innovation

According to this BBC report, science and art, once taught in tandem in the time of Da Vinci, have become too radically separated in the modern university. Science and engineering are now paying the price because they are focusing too much on data and rote knowledge and not enough on unique combinations of scientific know-how and artistic thinking. New pathways toward innovation are not found in more science, we are told, but in the development of the imagination and creative vision to harness scientific thinking in new ways.

Einstein often made the same point about the process of theorization: “I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited.
Imagination encircles the world.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21719784

*thanks to Lynn Williams for the link