Fear of failure: why american science is not winning the war on cancer.

How to maximize creativity in biological science is a topic rarely discussed and yet critical to success in improving health. I believe that the needed approaches are not simply to flog individuals to try harder but to build systems and infrastructures that enhance creative effort. Lateral thinking can and should be taught. My hope for the future is that every graduate science curriculum will have a course in innovation. Institutions must provide time, space, and individual credit to the long and slow process of creative output. Highly multidisciplinary science should be supported, some of which may require seed or infrastructure support. Funders can separate idea generation from implementation. Scientists can minimize costs of failure by piloting and modeling ideas through incremental research, if supported by funders. But perhaps the very first step is to initiate a vibrant discussion of what we can do to enhance creativity in American biological science-it is time to stop complaining and to start winning the war on cancer.