The Evolution of Evolution”*

                                   Tony Rothman

            If there is a grand truth about science, it is that science is a collective enterprise.  Researchers trade ideas, borrow any that come their way.  Colleagues and rivals are indistinguishable, borrowing becomes what in other circles goes by the name of theft; opponents are generally recognized, sometimes not, more often in the vast flood of papers, lost.  Vanishing few are the discoveries made by a single individual.  Strange, then, that even today the media so often portrays the great advances of science as springing fully formed from the brow of towering geniuses who work in splendid isolation.

Apocalypse CERN

                                     Tony Rothman

Al and Marilyn*

Tony Rothman

Film lovers over forty may remember the scene in Nicholas Roeg’s 1985 Insignificance where “The actress,” who bears an uncanny resemblance to Marilyn Monroe, explains the theory of relativity to “The Professor,” whose wild hair leaves no doubt as to his identity.  One wonders whether Roeg could make his film today with impunity, because Albert and Marilyn have more in common than relativity; they have in common celebrity.

Several years ago I had a book in press, Everything’s Relative and Other Fables From Science and Technology.  Given the title, the publisher’s house artist not unreasonably designed a cover that included a photographic image of Albert Einstein.  The publisher (Wiley) had properly licensed the photo from Bill Gates’ firm Corbis.  One would have thought that would end the matter.

With the American daily news having transformed itself into an incessant trumpeting of economic Armageddon, it might seem the height of escapism, not to mention irrelevance, to contemplate a vanished Japanese mathematical tradition known as temple geometry.  Escapism it surely is; irrelevant, maybe.

I’m pleased to introduce a new semi-monthly column by writer, physicist, and Princeton University lecturer Tony Rothman.  His most recent book, with Fukagawa Hidetoshi, is called SACRED MATHEMATICS: Japanese Temple Geometry.  Please enjoy his inaugural post!

“Do The Math”

Tony Rothman

The word “metaphysics” derives from the Greek meta ta physika. It was originally used by Aristotle’s Hellenistic editors merely to refer to his books that came after the books on physika—the things of nature. Thus “metaphysics”—after the things of nature. In this series I do not intend primarily to discuss the things of nature, the latest and most dazzling scientific discoveries, trends and fashions. I would like instead to explore how our world looks through the eyes of a professional physicist, one trained in mathematics and steeped in analytical habits. My particular area of expertise is cosmology, the study of the early universe, but like any physical scientist I value facts and data over opinion, pay close attention to the logic of an argument and show an appreciation for a carefully designed experiment or an elegant mathematical demonstration. To those of us raised in the scientific community such an outlook seems reasonable. When we listen to the news, we learn we do not think much like journalists, talk show hosts or politicians. Sometimes we wonder whether we are space aliens.