I believe that Science can profit a lot from art. I was listening to Dr. Martha Beck in The Diary of a Ceo about how we connect our left and right side brains and how art is so necessary for our well being. She brought the point that art and music are found in every culture even in the most terrible human degrading historical situations.
This may be in part because making art soothes us. And seeing art soothes us.
Imagine you are reading a scientific paper and the figures are not clear. There is no hierarchy (intentional size of text and things), the colors are arbitrary, objects have no clear silhouette and shapes are misleading.
How do you feel? How unnecessarily big is your mental load when reading the paper?
How differently would it be reading a scientific paper with balanced beautiful scientific figures on it?
Also imagine the overview image of the experiment feels like a piece of art. How does that prepare your mood to read the paper and how does that open your creative side?
I think it is worth aiming for these soothing figures.
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