“At the 2026 One Nucleus BioBeat event, I was asked to bring an agritech perspective into a biotech room on the topic of “The Medici Effect” — how breakthroughs emerge at the intersection of disciplines.” Kate Brunswick, AgriTechE
The Medici family in Renaissance Florence didn’t just support painters, architects or sculptors individually — they created environments where all of them mixed. Artists, scientists, philosophers, engineers and mathematicians worked in proximity, sharing ideas, challenging assumptions and building the foundations of the Renaissance.
Frans Johansson captured this perfectly in his 2004 book The Medici Effect: Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts, and Cultures. He argued that innovation emerges at “the intersection of fields, disciplines, and cultures,” where people can change the rules of the game.