From Newton to Einstein

THE SCIENTIFIC IMAGINATION: Gerald Holton; Universities Press (India) Ltd., Hyderabad. Distributed by Orient Longman Ltd., 160, Anna Salai, Chennai-600002. Rs. 475.

A WINNER of the Millikan and the George Sarton medals, Holton is a professor of physics and history of science in the Harvard University. The chief aim of this book, says the author, is to increase our understanding of the imagination of scientists engaged in their profession. Any major scientific idea needs a major source of energy.

In the preface, he cites Copernicus (whose work stands at the very beginning of modern science) who relied on observation and calculation. He firmly believed that humans can unravel both the reality and the design of the Creator through the study of nature.

The author exudes a sense of optimism when he says that we will find the ultimate laws of nature in the area of elementary particles and fields, and cosmology too perhaps. Relativity and quantum mechanics are restrictive principles but nature, says the author, somehow manages to be both relativistic and quantum mechanical.

There are three parts in this book. Part I deals with the thematic analysis of science. Here the author refers to Steven Weinberg's Unified Theories of Elementary Particle Interaction where we can see one of man's enduring hopes, namely, to find a few simple general laws that will help us formulate a unified theory. He then proceeds to examine the thema-anithema duo through the eyes of Newton and Einstein to explain how a Newtonian order could be taken to be at the bottom of things that, at a first glance, appear chaotic, like the Brownian motion studied by Einstein.

These erratic motions could be entirely explained by simple Newtonian laws. He indulges in a lengthy discussion on the work done by the U.S. physicist Millikan that led to an accurate evaluation of `e' and `h' - the charge of an electron and the value of Planck's constant.

Ehrenhaft's work on the electron and the confrontationist scenario that erupted as a result are also discussed in detail. In doing so, the reader's attention is drawn to what the author has termed the ``suspension of disbelief'' that runs through Millikan's approach to his work. This notion refers to the ability to hold in abeyance the judgement concerning the validity of apparent falsification of a promising hypothesis.

In the same vein the author also focusses on Ehrenhaft's presupposition and motivation that guided his approach to scientific questions.

Part II, where the author zooms in on the studies in recent science, starts with a discussion on Fermi's group and the recapture of Italy's place in physics. According to him the secret of Fermi's mastery of the subject was his ability to combine all his skills - experimental, theoretical, his vast knowledge and a penchant for fundamental simplicity and ``parsimony''.

Fermi had this capacity to reduce any overwhelming knowledge to an example of one of the seven or so primitive or primary physical situations - a perception of nature's basic parsimonious attitude in the order of things! He then proceeds to enlighten the reader about Fermi's approach to scientific problems, research methods and his mastery of physics and style of research. But, as he muses, these qualities alone were not enough to bring about any transformation in physics in Italy. Fermi had to fit into a tradition within which science was carried on in Italy. Fermi's group helped physics in Italy come of age in the Thirties. This group, says the author, modelled itself to a large degree on a family that was committed to bringing honour to Italy through the work of Italian scientists. Today, more than five decades after Fermi's generation appeared on the scene, the various works of Italian physicists are internationally acknowledged.

Part III deals with the public understanding of science and opens with a chapter on Lewis Mumford's views on science, technology and life. Mumford was a U.S. sociologist and writer who wrote on architecture and urbanisation in such works as The Story of Utopias (1922) and The City in History (1961) stressing the effects of technology on society. His laudable goals were: better integration of rational and emotional capacities, the confidence of qualitative and quantitative views of man in nature rather than man against nature and the loosening of the hold of the military machine in most major countries. Whether these goals can be achieved or not still remains a moot point. There are two brief chapters in this last part on the life and work of Issac Newton and Albert Einstein by Frank E. Manual and Rona W. Clark respectively.

The book ends with a chapter discussing the educational philosophy of the Project Physics Course where the author emphasises the point that education is achieved by imparting a point of view that allows generalisation and application in a wide variety of circumstances in one's later life.

To summarise, the book explains the ways in which the imagination of the scientist functions early in the formation of a new theory, which, essentially, is opposed to the traditional belief governed by objective criteria in the process of evaluation and validation of scientific community. Science has a place in every culture and the author has projected a philosophy that should help the reader understand this basic viewpoint.

C. V. SUBRAMANIAM

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