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A Conversation with Alan Lightman
An anonymous reader writes "LiveScience has an interview with Physicist, novelist, and science writer, Alan Lightman with regards to the future of science and what the next "big" discoveries might be. From the article: "Generally attack against science is part of a greater attack against intellectualism in general. I think right now we're in an anti-intellectual period in the United States, but I think the pendulum will swing back in the other direction again."
Sure. He has a B.Sc. in Physics from Princeton, a Ph.D. in Physics from Caltech... his thesis advisor there was Kip Thorne... and is good friends with many of the big names in science (for example, Gell-Mann... the quark guy). I'm sure he has a much stronger familiarity with physics than a layman. You'd be surprised what being in those circles does for one's perspective on science and its direction. :)
Mike.
Mmmm......sacrelicious.
Can you explain how a "theory" differs from "proven science"?
Here's why I ask: you don't prove theories. They are simply the best explanations available for all the available data. So far, relativity, evolutionary theory, Big Bang theory, quantum electrodynamics, and so on have held up in a stellar fashion. Calling something a "theory" in the scientific sense elevates it to the highest degree of certainty there can be. The only controversy around them involves tweaking them as new data appears, and attempting to cloud their acceptance by saying they are "only theories".
So I'd be interested in hearing about this "proven science".
There is quite a bit of gathering experts on both sides
... draw your own conclusions.
No, in fact, there isn't. If one were to only look at debates on the hill and on talking heads television shows, one would get the impression that there are large numbers of experts on boths sides.
But that simply isn't true. There is an overrwhelming number of scientists on one side and a relatively small number of experts on the other. And additionally, many people on one particular side of the issue are recieving lots of funding from the petrolium industy. In fact, I couldn't name a single expert against global warming who isn't being payed by big oil in some manner. I'm not saying that te anti global warming experts are all liars, but ah
Furthermore, he doesn't just read modern novels and name-drop about their authors, but writes novels too -- including "The Reunion" which was in part based on his actually attending a Caltech reunion and and having dinners with fellow alumni, including yours truly. Caltech summarizes his credentials thus: Alan Lightman PhD '74 Physics "Alan Lightman is a physicist, novelist, and educator. After receiving his PhD in theoretical physics from Caltech in 1974, he taught astronomy and physics at Harvard. In 1989 he went to MIT with a joint appointment in physics and the humanities. His scientific research has been in the area of relativity and astrophysics. In the early 1980s, Lightman began writing essays about the human dimensions of science. His essays and reviews have appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, the New Yorker, and the New York Review of Books. He is the author of a dozen books, the most recent being the novels The Diagnosis, Good Benito, Einstein's Dreams, and the forthcoming Reunion, which will be available in July. In 1996, Lightman won the Gemant Prize of the American Institute of Physics for linking science with the humanities." In addition, he only published on science fiction poem that I know of, "In Computers" -- and that won the 1983 Rhysling Award for Best Short Science Fiction Poem of the Year: SFPA Grand Masters and Rhysling Winners: 1978-2005. By the way, I talked with Kip Thorne a few hours ago, about how Harvard Professor Lisa Randall does actually look like Jodie Foster, although she always says in interviews how she hates to be told that. -- Jonathan Vos Post Caltech Class of 1972/73 1987 winner of Rhysling for "Before the Big Bang: News from the Hubble Large Space Telescope"