For Maurice Bernard, a longtime physicist who was hired to be director of the Research Laboratory of French Museums, the creative spark was forged literally the moment he stepped across that line.

“On entering the art museum,” Edwards writes, “he found an environment that surprised him. Naturally it led to fresh questions. This abrupt change in perspective, which leads highly trained and experienced minds to pose the sorts of original questions we normally leave to those just starting out on a career, is a hallmark of artscience creativity. Innovators can find the move from one culture to the next, from art to science or science to art, catalytic to their creativity.”

There are plenty of math geniuses bumping up against artsy types in the halls of Le Laboratoire (lelaboratoire.org), playing off each other in a way that Edwards hopes universities, museums, and corporations will adopt. “It’s like any big transitional moment—and we probably all think we’ve lived in a transitional moment, but it certainly feels like we’re living in one now—there’s an opportunity for really enlightened leaders who can create lab kinds of environments,” Edwards says. “We need to be more conscious of the value that these barriers represent as opposed to fearing the barrier.”