Exploring the Universe ed. by Louise B. Young (review)

Leonurdo, Vol. 6, pp. 173-186. Pergamon Press 1973. Printed in Great Britain BOOKS Readers are invited to recommend books to be reviewed. Only books in English and in French can be reviewed at this stage. Those who would like to be added to Leonardo’spanel of reviewers should write to the Founder-Editor,indicating theirparticular interests. Exploring the Universe. Louise B. Young, ed. Oxford UniversityPress, New York, 1971. 731pp., illus. $12.50 (cloth), $6.50 (paperback). Reviewed by: Ralph J. Turner* The creative aspects of science are discussed at the beginning of the book and then the scientific process is defined for the non-scientist. Thus, this anthology should be of special interest to artists.It shouldfulfillone objectiveoftheAmerican Foundation for ContinuingEducation,under whose auspices it was published. Though it does not especially try to bring artists and scientists into communicationwith one another, some of the first excerpts recognize their similarities (pursuit of truth, experimentation,freedom of thought). The lengthof texts and redundancy(originaltextsfollow discussions of them) make the book a formidable one to read. Like the Christian church, sciencelays claims to universality;science also calls for humility from its adherents who search for an understanding of nature. The scientific method was first considered correct because it sounded reasonable. Does the non-scientist, then, have faith in scientific results or does he take an indifferent attitude because he finds them incomprehensible? Two characteristics of sciencemake such a choice difficult: First, the problems of resolving apparent contradictions, as in the caseof wave theory versus quantum theory in dealingwith radiation and the tracing of elementary particles without affecting them, and, second, the obvious successes of the scientific method. We are left with a third possibility; the necessity to understand what Bridgman means when he says: ‘...it is impossible to transcend the human reference point.. ..’ and ‘the world fades out and eludes us because it becomes meaningless....’ When a scientist reaches such a conclusion one realizes that science may be approaching the state of contemporaryphilosophy,literature and art. Thebookincludesmanyimportantdevelopments, for example, the experimental method (often misunderstood by artists) and the development of parameters, such as space, time and mass, and of * Lunar and PlanetaryLaboratory, Universityof Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, U.S.A. their relationships. The interdependence of inductive and deductive methods is discussed to clarifythe relationshipof observationsto syntheses. One can find in another anthology, ‘Science: Men, Methods, Goals’ by B. Brodi and N. Capaldi (New York: W. A. Benjamin, 1968), a more thorough discussionof these matters but the present book has an easier pace and is more general. The mixture of texts by Descartes, Newton, Jeans and Einstein with those of commentatorssuch as Gamow, Asimov, Koestler, Sullivan and A. Huxley requires a reader’s alertness, for often the original intentions and references of a quoted author are confused with the thread of argument in the book. One is tempted tojudge negatively someexcerpts taken out of their original context. Thus, the comments of Aldous Huxley seem pure hyperbole; Bertrand Russell appears a poor prophet; Whitehead is wordy. But some scientists write clearly, suchastheradioastronomerLove11andthecosmologists Eddington and Shapley. The ‘Principle of Uncertainty’ presented by Bronowski is pertinent for those interestedin randomnessand chance. Space exploration is presented as the climax of the scientificrevolution. I find that undue attention is given to its technological aspects and that the summation of recent planetary discoveries by Lee Edson is misleading. Although the manned Apollo missions to the Moon were dramatic and brought back valuable material, the years 1964-1969 were very productive in scientific data provided on the Moon, Venus and Mars by unmanned space craft and by Earth-based astronomical observations. Transition from one part to another of the anthology is accomplished by means of poetic quotes or of comments by the editor. The extensive glossary and index, as well as the bibliographies at the end of each section, are useful. These, with the footnotes giving sources and the ‘Suggestions for Further Reading’,makethebooka self-teachingaid. The illustrations are numerous but their diagrammatic character gets tiresome and some are of doubtful value. The final selectionfrom Whitehead is a disappointing ending to such a long book, for its overtones of the superiority of ‘Western’ man are, I believe, baseless. 173...