16 AUGUST 2007
Scientists are always celebrating past accomplishments. And why not? They've got a lot to celebrate.
Civilization itself has been built on science's many discoveries. As the late Daniel Koshland Jr. wrote, posthumously published in the Aug. 10 issue of Science, "Scientific discoveries are the steps -- some small, some big -- on the staircase called progress, which has led to a better life for the citizens of the world."
During the 20th century alone, scientists recorded several immeasurably grand achievements, providing a deeper understanding of nature's inner workings than some philosophers thought ever would be possible.
Consider just some of those discoveries, enshrined in today's textbooks and taught to gradeschoolers, that were beyond the grasp of 19th century geniuses:
A detailed description of how stars shine.
What more could you ask for?
Well, it's a new century now, and you could ask what science will do for an encore. After all, by the time the 21st century ends, scientists surely expect to have some new accomplishments to celebrate. But let's not wait until then. Just for fun, let's pretend the century is already over, and list its Top 5 Scientific Discoveries:
5. The reconciliation of quantum physics with relativity.
Quantum physics -- the science of atoms and subatomic particles and forces --
remains estranged from Einstein's general relativity, the math governing gravity
and
the cosmos as a whole. While quantum math captures the essence of matter and
energy on the microscale, relativity rules the cosmic evolution of space and
time. Somehow, someday, time and space, matter and energy should all come together.
4. A complete theory of consciousness.
20th-century
science made great strides in understanding the brain, but was not quite
as successful in understanding the mind. Mind and brain are intimately
related, of course, but nobody seems sure what gives a brain a mind of
its own. Somehow, billions of brain cells -- individually, incapable of
little except transmitting electrical shocks and squirting out chemicals
-- cooperate to create awareness and identity. Dozens of brainy minds have
attempted to explain the sense of self and its control of behavior, but
nobody has been able to convince everybody that all the ingredients of
the ultimate explanation have been discovered.
3. What the universe is made of.
Along with the last century's grand cosmic discoveries came an embarrassment
-- the realization the universe is mostly made of mysterious stuff. The triumph
of explaining Earthly matter has been eclipsed by evidence that it makes up
only a few percent of the contents of the cosmos. Some of the rest appears
to be matter of a sort, but not any sort known to science. And most of the
universe is even more mysterious, consisting, or so it seems, of an intangible
energy field with paradoxical properties (for one thing, it makes space expand,
propelling the universe to grow at an accelerating rate). Discerning the identity
of the matter and energy that rule the universe would surely be an accomplishment
worth celebrating.
2. Finding the place of the visible universe in the ultimate structure of reality.
A century ago, astronomers were just beginning to glimpse the vastness of space,
and they soon discovered that the Milky Way galaxy -- the great disc containing
billions of stars, including the sun -- was merely one of billions of such galaxies
spread across the cosmos. Today some astronomers suspect that the entire visible
universe is just one of countless other spacetime bubbles. Some physicists
even speculate that higher dimensions of space exist, making existence rather
like the Twilight Zone on steroids. "Getting a grip on reality" might someday
take on a more complicated meaning.
1. Something as yet totally unimagined.
No doubt the greatest accomplishment of
the century ahead will be the one that nobody foresaw. After all, quantum physics,
relativity and expanding-universe cosmology took science by surprise. Somewhere
in the physical or biological world, there no doubt waits a secret that science
will stumble upon, and the world of ordinary life will suddenly be forever
changed.
Perhaps that secret lies in the brain, and the search for clues to consciousness will instead unlock a novel mystery about mentality. Maybe a new form of life will appear during the exploration of space, providing new insights into how life works back home, or new perspectives on death and disease. Or maybe the universe itself still conceals deep truths that differ dramatically from present-day theories and speculations.
And perhaps scientists will make a discovery so spectacular that their service to civilization would be widely recognized and rewarded, kind of the way athletes are today. Now that would be something to celebrate.
E-mail: tsiegfried@nasw.org
