Alan Lightman is a physicist, writer of seven novels, and professor of the practice of the humanities at MIT. His books include the international bestseller, Einstein’s Dreams, and The Diagnosis, a finalist for the National Book Award. He is also the host of the television series Searching: Our Quest for Meaning in the Age of Science.
Martin Rees is the UK’s Astronomer Royal. He is based at Cambridge University where he is Fellow (and Former Master) of Trinity College. He is a member of the House of Lords, a former President of the Royal Society, and co-founder of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risks at Cambridge University.
What’s the big idea?
Scientists are often treated like they’re something “other” than the rest of us. It’s as if they are this out-of-touch society of Einstein-looking nerds that can’t make up their minds about anything. These stereotypes and assumptions have clouded our culture from truly understanding and relating to the people who research, explore, and discover for the betterment of society.
Below, co-authors Alan and Martin share five key insights from their new book, The Shape of Wonder: How Scientists Think, Work, and Live. Listen to the audio version—read by Alan—in the Next Big Idea App.
1. Scientists are citizens.
Although a small number of scientists are motivated by financial and political interests, the vast majority of scientists work for the benefit of their societies and to understand the natural world.
On July 8, 1943, Thomas W. Wallace, only seven months into his job as Lieutenant Governor of New York, came down with pneumonia. He was quickly driven to Ellis Hospital in Schenectady, where he was placed in an oxygen tent. Wallace passed away a few days later, with his wife and two young children at his bedside. He was 43 years old.
By today’s standards, Mr. Wallace died young. But, in fact, people born in 1900, like Mr. Wallace, had a life expectancy of only 47 years. Today, the life expectancy in the U.S. has increased dramatically to 79 years, largely due to a better understanding of microscopic germs as the cause of infectious diseases, public health measures, and the discovery of antibiotics.
People are not only living longer, but healthier, too. At the beginning of the 20th century, 65 percent of the world’s population lived in “extreme poverty,” defined by the World Bank as less than $2.47 per person, per day. Today, the fraction of people worldwide living in that condition is about 9 percent.
Science and technology have brought about these astonishing increases in human life and well-being. Advances in biology and medicine, as well as vastly increased food production and transportation, were largely driven by the desire to improve the quality of life. Cyrus McCormick’s threshing machine led to a 500 percent increase in wheat harvesting per hour. Isaac Singer’s sewing machine lowered the time to make a shirt from 14 hours to 1 hour. Railroads. The cotton gin. The seed drill. Tractors. Electricity. Think of all the conveniences and pleasures of modern life: computers, vacuum cleaners, cell phones, automobiles—all the result of scientists and engineers trying to help their societies.
2. Scientists are people.
That may seem like an obvious idea, but many of us regard scientists as members of an elite priesthood, out of touch with ordinary people. In fact, scientists have the same emotions, hobbies, families, and love affairs as the rest of us.
Some people have a tin ear for language, but neuroscientist Marta Zlatić is not one of them. In addition to her native Croatian, she is fluent in English, German, French, Russian, and Spanish. For icing on the cake, throw in ancient Greek and Latin. While at Cambridge, Marta pursued her passion for the theater. Combining her interest in ancient Greek with her interest in acting, she starred in several of Euripides’ and Sophocles’ tragedies. With kids and a family, Marta doesn’t have time to act in plays anymore, but she does make time to go to the theater. On occasion, she plays tennis. In the summer, the family goes swimming; in the winter, skiing. I asked her what she worries about, and she answered, “I guess one always worries about one’s kids,” she says. “You can’t be a mother and not worry.”
“Scientists have the same emotions, hobbies, families, and love affairs as the rest of us.”
Ecologist Magdalena Lenda enjoys working with other people. She told me, “My idea of collaboration is building long-lasting relationships. The more diverse the people with different ideas, points of view and cultures, the better for research.” She also enjoys simply spending time with people. When she’s not out in the field, she may be cooking for friends or dancing Argentine tango at clubs in Krakow.
Theoretical physicist Dorota Grabowska fills their condo in Seattle with art, prints, and knick-knacks, including a carved dog from South Africa and paintings made by friends. “It’s busy,” says Dorota, “but these collections remind me of people and experiences.” She adds, “Physics is not the most fun thing I do. The thing I do for fun is that I’m a rock climber. I’m usually found at the climbing gym or outdoors. Most of my friends are also climbers.”
3. Scientists are not wishy-washy.
It may seem sometimes that scientists are always changing their minds, especially when it comes to health and medical recommendations. However, it is new data and evidence that prompt scientists to change their minds and revise their theories. This is part of what we call critical thinking: going by facts and evidence.
Imagine that you have been diagnosed with liver cancer. You are lying on the operating table, the surgeon has opened you up, and she discovers that she has made a mistake. You don’t have liver cancer after all. You wouldn’t want the surgeon to go ahead and remove part of your liver anyway, because that was their initial diagnosis. You would want them to leave the liver intact, because now they have new information.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, various health organizations around the world made certain recommendations based on the evidence available at the time. Those recommendations changed as new information became available. That is the way scientists work. That is part of critical thinking. And critical thinking is not owned by scientists. Lawyers, accountants, and automobile mechanics all use critical thinking. We use critical thinking when we balance our checkbook.
We make an initial hypothesis and then test that hypothesis against experiment, data, and evidence. If the hypothesis is refuted by the data, we revise it. We try to base our beliefs and our actions on evidence, not on assumptions or preferences.
4. Scientists come in a wide variety of flavors.
Many of us envision “the scientist” as an older Einstein: a mystifying genius with wild frizzy hair, head in the clouds, a slide rule clipped to his baggy sweatshirt, a creator of arcane theories. That stereotype fits few scientists. Scientists don’t fall into a single mold.
Scientists are women as well as men. Some sit and think; some build instruments and do experiments; some work alone, others work in small groups, and some in enormous consortiums; some do research and teach at universities, others work for industry or big companies; some work on “pure” problems with no practical benefit except to increase knowledge, others on problems with direct application; some scientists are married with children, others not; some come from Europe or Asia, others not. Each scientist chooses the kind of science and working environment that suits their individual temperament as much as their skill set. All are human beings with passions, jealousies, wrong turns, hopes, and anxieties like everyone else.
“Scientists don’t fall into a single mold.”
There is no single scientific personality type. Scientists can be bold and self-confident revolutionaries, like the New Zealand physicist Ernest Rutherford, who discovered the nucleus of the atom, or James Watson, one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA, or the marine biologist Rachel Carson, who helped launch the environmental movement.
They can also be modest and diffident, as seen in the cases of Charles Darwin, the Austrian physicist Lise Meitner, who made significant contributions to the understanding of nuclear fission, and Alexander Fleming, who discovered penicillin. The British physiologist William Bayliss, who discovered the first hormone in 1902, was cautious, meticulous, and detail-oriented, while his collaborator, Ernest Starling, was brisk, impatient, and focused mainly on the broad sweep of things. What these men and women shared was a sense of wonder at the natural world, a curiosity to know, a sheer pleasure in solving puzzles, and an independence of mind.
5. Science is disciplined wonder.
Many years ago, I took my then two-year-old daughter to the ocean for the first time. We had to walk quite a distance from the parking lot to the point where the ocean slid into view. Along the way, we passed various signs of the sea: sand dunes, seashells, sunbaked crab claws, delicate piping plovers, clumps of sea lavender growing between rocks, sea glass, and an occasional empty soda can. The air smelled salty and fresh.
My daughter followed a zig-zagging path, squatting here and there to examine an interesting rock or shell. Then we climbed over the crest of a final sand dune and suddenly, the ocean appeared before us, silent and huge, a turquoise skin spreading out and out until it joined with the sky. I was anxious about my daughter’s reaction to her first sight of infinity. Would she be frightened, elated, indifferent? For a moment, she froze. Then she broke out in a smile.
Child psychologists have long noted that curiosity and wonder bubble up naturally in young children. Interest in exploring and understanding the world must have had survival benefits in our evolutionary history. The capacity for wonder is part of our DNA.
We may think of the scientific enterprise as disciplined wonder. Good scientists view the physical world with the curiosity and wonder of children, but with additional training and tools to understand stars and rainbows and spider webs in precise terms.
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