Spring Break
Scientific findings for knowledge's sake
As research churns out new discoveries, the complexities of our world take shape, reveal clear patterns
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Millions of people from the Brazilian coastline to the Mongolian steppes turned their gaze skyward Wednesday to witness one of the rarest spectacles of nature: a total eclipse of the sun.
Over the weekend, a team of archaeologists and anthropologists announced the finding of a skull in northeastern Ethiopia that may provide the elusive "missing link" between modern humans and our ancient ancestors, Homo erectus.
A recent mathematical analysis of humpback whale songs, off the coast of Hawaii, suggests the marine giants use formal syntax to communicate large amounts of information in an ever-changing musical code.
These three recent events are dazzling reminders of the breathtaking natural beauty science and scientists reveal to us every day. From a cosmic alignment to a missing piece of an age-old puzzle to the realization that we are not the only intelligent species on this planet, science continues to surprise and inspire awe.
The classical picture of a scientist in a lab is sterile: starched white lab coat, cold fluorescent lights, row upon row of test tubes, Petri dishes and metallic instruments. Nothing personal, nothing creative. What does it all mean? Why should scientists do what they do?
The pursuit of science is partly motivated by the pure desire to learn. The word science has its origins in the Latin word scientia, meaning knowledge, and many scientists are certainly motivated by their faith in our university's motto, Veritas vos liberabit.
And, of course, practical applications, so often appealed to by politicians and the press, are a part of the equation. Every scientist knows, perhaps even hopes, that his research could lead to profound applications in medicine or technology. Scientific progress marches on unabated.
But what is shared by virtually every scientist, what truly motivates them in their tireless efforts at some very basic level, is an appreciation for the beauty they constantly find in the nature they study.
Beauty can be found in the simple, clever experiment or the elegant theory that suddenly causes everything to fall into place. When Watson and Crick first published their model for the structure of DNA, scientists were stunned at how closely form matched function, and in a basic geometric structure to boot.
For further proof, one need only look as far as Einstein's famous formula E = mC2 to appreciate how the very nature of the stuff that makes up the universe can be folded into such a straightforward equation. The painstaking pages of derivations all boil down to two just variables and a universal constant.
Scientists also find beauty in the complex, the unimaginably large and the seemingly unsolvable. The adult human brain has between 10 billion and 100 billion neurons, with possibly as many as 100 trillion connections among them. There are over 300 billion stars in the Milky Way alone, and more than 70 sextillion (that's seven followed by 22 zeroes) in the entire universe.
Over the last hundred years, chemistry and physics have been revolutionized by quantum mechanics. At its very core, quantum theory teaches that so much of what we take to be rock-solid regarding the makeup of matter is really only a matter of probabilities operating in tandem.
There are still questions out there to be answered, which is perhaps the greatest source of beauty in nature. Einstein once wrote, "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science." Einstein was right, as usual: the unsolved puzzle provides inspiration. What will be the next elegant theorem?
It is postulated that about 95 percent of the universe is made of so-called "dark matter" and "dark energy," invisible to detection but nevertheless permeating every corner of existence with their strange effects. What are they, and why can't we see them?
Astronomers have only identified 184 planets orbiting stars other than our own, but the sheer size of the universe suggests there must be trillions of times more. Are any of them like Earth, and have any evolved intelligent life? Are we alone?
And what about life on our own planet? How did a random mixture of gases and water turn into bacteria and redwoods and whales that sing? How do eyes and stem cells and the biosphere work? Scientists have only identified about 1.5 million species on this planet, but there are probably ten times as many yet to be found. And there are innumerable genes and proteins throughout the kingdoms of life still to understand.
The millions of people who saw the Earth's shadow move across the sun experienced a taste of the wonder and excitement scientists experience each and every day. They appreciated, if only for a few minutes, what Aristotle meant when he said quite simply, "In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous."