Glen W. Hartman Lecture. Science, creativity, and serendipity.

In this Roentgen centennial year, honoring the epochal discovery of the X-ray in 1895 [2], it is particularly appropriate to reflect on the circumstances of creativity that lead to important discoveries in science. In radiology as in general medicine and surgery, histories of the development of the discipline have generally presented a chronicle of sequential events without specific consideration of the underlying creative impulse [3-7]. I wish to consider features of creativity that may be relevant to us, that may enlighten us, and that may allow us to incorporate them individually into our view of the world and our appreciation of the grandeur of such contributions.