I’m a scientist; why should I bother with English Literature?

With ever increasing subject specialisation as students plan their ‘A’level options, it is perhaps worth considering what advantages mayaccrue from a broader approach to study. This would apply of course, to arts students as well as those choosing sciences as theirpreference. For now though, I will address the latter, particularlythose wishing to apply to medical school, although a similarargument would be appropriate for pure scientists and engineers. The reason for this being that it was with medical students that Ispent most of my academic career. As an academic at theUniversity of Nottingham Medical School and latterly at the newGraduate Entry Medical School I interviewed prospective medicalstudents over a period of thirty years.It is surely incumbent upon us as scientists to open our minds to avariety of intellectual stimuli, be they music, languages, literatureetc, and be able to hold meaningful discussions with our peers inthese areas. Winning teams in University Challenge for example,usually consist of a mix of arts and science students who have abreadth of knowledge as well as subject specialties. If we look forother examples, consider: Sir Humphrey Davy, of the miner’s safetylamp fame, was also a poet and friend of Coleridge and Wordsworth; Joseph Priestley and other members of the Lunar Society werepolymaths; William Herschel, discoverer of Uranus was a musician;Anton Chekhov was a doctor (medics, try reading Ward Six, one of his short stories); John Keats was a surgeon; Danny Abse, a modernpoet, was a physician in charge of a chest unit .... The list goes onand on.So what does, say, a study of English Literature bring besides the joy of reading? I would suggest that it encourages imagination,introduces ideas and hopefully increases vocabulary and the use of English. Furthermore, discussion and criticism of literature developsanalytical and communication skills and the ability to construct anargument to support personal opinions on a subject. The ability toanalyse and communicate data or any piece of work should be highon the agenda of a modern scientist. One only has to look at themess climate scientists at the University of East Anglia have gottenthemselves into to appreciate this. Development of communicationskills is also an integral component of present day medical studenttraining. The sciences and medicine are essentially factual subjects and forthe most part do not allow the luxury of independent thought, atleast not until research studies. Think of anatomy for instance,which has not really changed in hundreds of years. The neck bonehas always been connected to the head bone!! In interviewing