![]() Some have been expounding the idea for years. Non-scientific readers will be surprised to learn that the preponderance of the world’s great scientists agree with Horgan’s thesis that fundamental science is running out of steam, killed by its own success. The End of Science is neatly divided into chapters covering the various fields and key personalities in those fields: “The End of Physics,” “The End of Philosophy,” “The End of Cosmology,” “The End of Social Science,” etc. (When will scientists learn to stop using the “God” metaphor? The religious public, grasping for confirmation from authority, misreads it every time.) We learn, for instance, that Stephen Hawking, the great wheelchair-bound cosmologist famous for his line that physics will allow us “to know the mind of God,” is, in fact, an atheist and that his atheism may have been a key factor in his 1990 break up with his fundamentalist wife. We learn not just what they think about the great questions, but how they feel about them. He has traveled the world to interview them for Scientific American and presents their ideas in colorful, personal, terms, giving far more than just the usual quotes from their books. The book is thoroughly delightful reading because Horgan, a writer for many years for Scientific American, uses his own ideas as a fabric against which to display the ideas and personalities of virtually all the great scientists and philosophers of our time. Not jawboned ad infinitum like philosophers do, but answered definitively by science. The thesis of John Horgan’s book, The End of Science, is that, while science will never run out of details to fill in, the first tier of human curiosity-those questions humanity has wondered and mused over since its beginning-have been or soon will be answered (if they can be answered at all). It is no longer possible that Betelgeuse will turn out to be a diamond in the sky. The Hubble telescope recently revealed, for instance, that Betelgeuse, the biggest star in the sky as seen from Earth, has a humongous hot spot inconsistent with current theory. Yes, there are still details, even surprises in store. Science can only find out what stars are once. Twinkle, twinkle, little star, Now we know just what you are.īut there’s a problem here. For those of us who find knowledge more exciting than ignorance, “Twinkle, Twinkle” needs to be reworded: In short, astronomers know everything about stars the child’s song ever dreamed of asking and a whole lot more. ![]() Now we know what stars are made of, how big they are, how old they are, how far away they are, how they shine, where they came from, how they die, how hot they are inside and out, etc. Over the millennia countless hours of human time have been spent wondering what stars are. It does not store any personal data.The End of Science, by John Horgan (Reading, Mass.: Addison Wesley, 1996) 308 pp., cloth $24.00. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". ![]() These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |