Fifty years after the physicist and novelist CP Snow ignited a debate about the split in western culture between science and the arts, the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Music are marking the occasion with a discussion about science and creativity.
In a New Statesman article on October 6 1956, Snow claimed scientists had "the strength of a social force behind them", while the arts were "like a state whose power is rapidly declining".
He lamented the "indifference" scientists showed towards philosophy, the low profile of the graphic arts and the way in which the "younger rank and file" of scientists "hardly read at all", but concluded that it was "traditional culture" which had more to lose.
In a 1959 Cambridge University lecture, he went on to describe how he had found himself provoked by "highly educated people" expressing their incredulity at the "illiteracy" of scientists.
When he asked whether those present could describe the second law of thermodynamics, he was met by a cold and negative response, even though he thought he was asking a question which was the scientific equivalent of asking whether anyone had read something written by Shakespeare.
The debate turned personal when the literary critic FR Leavis launched a stinging attack on both Snow and his argument.
He claimed Snow was "utterly without a glimmer of what creative literature is, or why it matters", pouring scorn on his "embarrassing vulgarity of style" and accusing him of being completely ignorant of both history and literature.
But are we any less divided today? Colleagues on the arts desk proved unable to explain any of the laws of thermodynamics, suggesting they might have something to do with feeling the benefit of putting on a coat as you step outdoors, and that it was probably a matter for Wikipedia.
Now the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Music are joining forces to investigate bridges across the cultural divide. Neuroscientist Daniel Glaser, psychologist Susan Blackmore and composer Robert Saxton will be discussing the science of creativity at the Academy on November 10, and examining the results of our two cultures quiz.
Are you mono-cultured, bi-cultured or just uncultured? Try the two cultures quiz, and you could win a copy of Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything.
