July 27, 2004
Pauling
Einstein
Hawking
Preskill... Let's take five with Moira Gunn. This is "Five Minutes."
You may have heard about Cambridge cosmologist Stephen Hawking's recent reversal on scientific theory. If you can't quite figure out what it means, I wouldn't worry. It?s not that I doubt your intelligence, or your commitment to keeping up with the latest in scientific breakthroughs. But consider this: The scientist with whom he made a famous bet some 30 years ago ? Cal Tech's John Preskill was there to hear Hawking speak, and Preskill himself stated outright: "I'll be honest, I didn't understand the talk."
To his credit, Professor Preskill was man enough to accept the encyclopedia the bet put at stake. You might call it a diplomatic "I don't why you think I'm right, but I'll let you" position, which sounded good-natured and supportive to me. At least to a point. The good professor did insist that a cricket encyclopedia just wouldn't do, and a baseball encyclopedia had to be specially flown in.
--
This does lead me to ask, however, just who did understood Hawking's talk? If not Preskill, then who? Maybe no one. Even one of Hawking's Cambridge University colleagues states: "At the moment everyone is reserving judgment, but Steve doesn't say things like this very often and so it's highly likely he's on to something interesting."
And no doubt he is. In fact, I very much appreciate how he worded this apparent breakthrough. The opening sentence of his speech was "I want to report that I think I have solved a major problem in theoretical physics." While the headlines and press reports have tended to focus on the news that a major problem has been solved, the operative words were "I think I have solved."
That's right, I think. That's the reality. Science is about the search for the truth. Every so often we discover the truth. But science in the trenches is really about the search. Searching is what gets you out of bed in the morning, or has you pondering to yourself as you drift off to sleep.
--
To be fair, you can't expect Stephen Hawking to slap together a couple of PowerPoint slides and these scientists will immediately see what he's talking about. It's far too complex. It requires serious mathematical consideration. Which is why the paper he's going to publish about all this is most important of all.
At the same time, some have argued that Hawking's concession has been over-hyped. That because of who he is, he drew the international press, and if he were someone else, few media would have shown up. But let's not forget that celebrity scientists are not a new phenomenon.
I spoke with Linus Pauling when he was in his 90s. He told me that as a young man in the 1930s, he gave a paper at a European conference. As he began speaking to a mostly-empty auditorium, the doors burst open and Albert Einstein walked down the center aisle and took a place in the front row. Following him was a whole gaggle of press. Pauling proceeded to report on his work, but before he could finish, Einstein stood up and marched out of the room. Followed again, by a surprised press corps.
Outside, they asked Einstein why he had left. He shook his head and replied, "It was far too difficult for me to understand." Then Pauling chuckled. He said, "That was a lucky break. Made my reputation."
Ah, yes. Science and scientists, scientific meetings and the media. When are we gonna learn?
I'm Moira Gunn. This is Five Minutes.
Back to Five Minutes List
