Despite its dependence on hard evidence, science is a creative discipline. That creativity needs nurturing, even in this age of performance targets and impact assessments. Scientist need to flex their imaginations, too.
[Under normal circumstances, scientific speculation is confined by both the prevailing wisdom and the available evidence. If it were not, it would be "so open its brains fell out" and not have a hope of making progress. But when an impasses is reached, when it is clear that a theory cannot be correct, no matter how well-accepted it is, then and only then does imagination get free reign.]
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23331153-800-to-advance-science-we-need-to-think-about-the-impossible/
Sister blog of Physicists of the Caribbean in which I babble about non-astronomy stuff, because everyone needs a hobby
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