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Articles on Inspiration

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Oregon’s Umpqua Dunes inspired the desert planet Arrakis in Frank Herbert’s ‘Dune.’ VWPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

How ‘Dune’ became a beacon for the fledgling environmental movement − and a rallying cry for the new science of ecology

When Frank Herbert sat down in 1963 to start writing ‘Dune,’ he wasn’t thinking about how to leave Earth behind. He was thinking about how to save it.
The romantic image of the writer doesn’t do justice to the tedious reality of churning out words, one after another. fcscafeine/iStock via Getty Images

The 5,000-year history of writer’s block

Since the earliest days of the written word, students and scholars have pleaded for help from higher powers, a sure sign that writing and frustration always have – and always will – go hand in hand.
By encouraging random encounters and free-flowing conversation, coffee shops are engines of innovation. Hulton Archive/Stringer via Getty Images

Why being stuck at home – and unable to hang out in cafes and bars – drains our creativity

By missing out on chance encounters and observations that jolt ‘a-ha’ moments, new ideas, big and small, go undiscovered.
During their 1962 residency at Hamburg’s Star-Club, the Beatles had the opportunity of a lifetime: opening for Little Richard. Horst Fascher/K & K Ulf Kruger OHG/Redferns via Getty Images

How Little Richard helped launch the Beatles

When a 14-year-old Paul McCartney watched Little Richard in the hit film ‘The Girl Can’t Help It,’ he couldn’t have imagined that the two would one day take the stage together.
Preliminary drawing of title page for ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ (New York: Harper & Row, 1963), 26:7, The Maurice Sendak Collection. Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut Library. © The Maurice Sendak Foundation.

From ‘Wild Horses’ to ‘Wild Things,’ a window into Maurice Sendak’s creative process

The book took eight years from conception to publication. In the earliest dummy, the monsters that millions have grown to love actually started out as horses.
A kingfisher’s beak inspired the design of high-speed trains in Japan, through the process of ‘biomimicry,’ or human imitation of nature. (Shutterstock)

How modern technology is inspired by the natural world

From kingfishers to dandelion seeds and bone tissue, natural organisms are the source of many radical human innovations in technology and medicine.
When we speak of writer’s block, we may actually be talking about a ‘creation block’. M Yashna

Coming up blank: the science of writer’s block

The dreaded blank page haunts every writer. But what happens in your brain when you run dry? And, more importantly, what – if anything – can be done about it?

How Maya Angelou made me feel

One of the many quotes from Maya Angelou that people are sharing on this day of her home coming is: I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will…

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