From Galileo to Gell-Mann: The Wonder that Inspired the Greatest Scientists of All Time: In Their Own Words

337 Pages·2009·3.498 MB·English

by  Marco Bersanelli, MARIO Gargantini

From Galileo to Gell-Mann

From Galileo to Gell-Mann
the wonder
that inspired
the greatest
scientists
of all time
* * * *
in their own
words
Marco Bersanelli & Mario Gargantini
Translated by John Bowden
templeton press
Templeton Press Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
300 Conshohocken State Road, Suite 550
West Conshohocken, PA 19428 Bersanelli, Marco.
www.templetonpress.org [Solo lo stupore conosce. English]
From Galileo to Gell-Mann : the wonder that inspired
English translation: © 2009 by Templeton Press the greatest scientists of all time in their own words /
Italian edition: © 2003 by RCS Libri S.p.A., Milan Marco Bersanelli and Mario Gargantini ; translated by
John Bowden.
Supported by a grant from the Templeton Publishing p. cm.
Subsidy Program Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-59947-340-6 (alk. paper)
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or ISBN-10: 1-59947-340-2 (alk. paper)
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in 1. Research--Psychological aspects. 2. Scientists—
any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, pho- Psychology. 3. Science and the humanities. I. Gargantini,
tocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written Mario. II. Title.
permission of Templeton Press. Q180.55.P75B4713 2009
500—dc22
Designed and typeset by Gopa and Ted2, Inc. 2009010012
Printed in the United States of America 09 10 11 12 13 14 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
It is prime evidence of an amazement with which the attitude
of the true researcher is charged; the marvel of the presence
attracts me; it so to speak sparks off the research in me.
Luigi Giussani

Contents
Preface by Duccio Macchetto ix
Introduction xiii
1. Wonder 3
Wonder and Reality 5
Wonder and Beauty 9
Wonder and Contemplation 16
Wonder and Curiosity 21
Wonder and Knowledge 26
Wonder and Joy 31
Wonder and Observation 32
2. Observation 33
Observation and Affection 36
Observation and Preconception 42
Observation and Realism 49
Observation and Question 53
Observation and Experiment 57
3. Experiment 61
Experiment and Nature 63
Experiment and Method 70
Experiment and Attention 78
Experiment and Discovery 85 vii
4. Discovery 89
Discovery and Event 92
Discovery and Innovation 99
Discovery and Imagination 104
Discovery and Intuition 109
Discovery and Company 114
Discovery and the Unforeseen 119
Discovery and Gratitude 127
Discovery and Certainty 130
5. Certainty 135
Certainty and Reality 138
Certainty and Patience 145
Certainty and Limits 146
Certainty and Impossibility 151
Certainty and Knowability 154
Certainty and Person 158
Certainty and Sign 162
6. Sign 167
Sign and Knowledge 171
Sign and Chance 181
Sign and Origin 188
Sign and Mystery 195
Sign and Design 199
Sign and Purpose 209
7. Purpose 211
Purpose and Responsibility 214
Purpose and Harmony 227
Purpose and Religion 234
Purpose and Morality 239
Purpose and Faith 243
Purpose and Praise 248
Acknowledgments 251
contents Appendix A. Biographical Notes 255
viii Appendix B. Glossary 289
Notes 303
Index 313
Preface
On October 4, 1957, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, for the fi rst
time in the history of humankind the then Soviet Union placed an
artifi cial satellite into orbit, the famous Sputnik. This event also had
an enormous importance from a political perspective, because it demonstrated
the capacity that the Soviet Union had achieved with rockets that were capable
of launching not only satellites but also nuclear warheads, with all the impli-
cations that this had for the so-called Cold War and the security of the West.
Moreover, it had a fundamental long-term importance from a technological
point of view, because of the great stimulus it provided for space research not
only in the Soviet Union but above all in the United States. In fact, a few years
later, President Kennedy, in a famous speech, promised the full support of the
U.S. government for the development of the necessary technology to reach the
moon before the end of that decade.
In a far less transcendental way, the same event had a direct infl uence on
my life. October 4 was also my birthday. I was fi fteen, an age at which I was
still very fl exible and ready to wonder at and absorb all that the world could
offer. It was my penultimate year at school, and I was planning to follow in
my father’s footsteps and become a civil engineer, and later go on to work in
his construction fi rm. However, the marvel of Sputnik’s launching made me
dream, and I began to think that “when I grew up” I would like to work in
space research, a fi eld that was opening up at that very moment. When I left
school the next year, I enrolled in physics instead of engineering, and my road
ix
to space research had begun.
This episode in my life serves simply to illustrate, from a very personal point
of view, how amazement and wonder at the world that surrounds us and at