A famous example involves the mathematician Poincar , who, upon stepping down from a bus suddenly visualized the solution to a difficult problem. He conceived of the solution not at his desk with pencil in hand, but while walking about, perhaps because of some unforeseen trigger in daily life. And one thinks, of course, of the apocryphal story of Newton and the apple. Contemporary thinkers like James Hillman have written eloquently about the role of the imagination in the workings of the healthy mind. When considering a body of water like the Chesapeake Bay, with an eye toward deep understanding, it becomes clear that more than one discipline pertains.
Physical hydrology explains the Bay's elaborate two-layer estuarine circulation pattern.
Chemistry can explain how the Bay's complex mixture of sodium interacts with a range of metals and with nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus. Once we understand the physical and chemical substructure of the Bay, we can better explain its biology, first in terms of individual species, and then ultimately as an integrated, interdependent ecosystem. This is the task set before the writer, to bring all these facets of the mind to bear. I have seen it rise from many oceans, and I saw it rise from the Sea of Galilee. . . . What I saw was the constant intersection of two wave systems.