Salieri, Healy recalled, was talented in a "workmanlike sort of way. He could compose and get the job done with competence. By contrast, Mozart was a mercurial, brilliant, difficult genius. The music he composed was not merely competent; it was sublime." The contrast between Mozart and Salieri raised a question for Healy about policy: "Can science and medicine flourish ... if we cultivate only the Salieris?" Her answer, of course, was no: "The talent base we need requires more Mozarts. Energetic, talented and irreverent youth must be encouraged .... The cost of finding, educating, and sending the medical Mozarts to the frontier is not cheap. But the cost of the only alternatives--ignorance and scientific stagnation--is incalculably higher."
Healy's question--and her answer--remain compelling. Who would not welcome the scientific equivalent of The Magic Flute? Unfortunately, no one has hit upon a way to find, cultivate, and sustain the Mozarts. Despite the ...
