Imminent Science: What Remains to be Discovered PDF
Preview Imminent Science: What Remains to be Discovered
Giovanni F. Bignami Imminent Science What Remains to be Discovered Imminent Science . Giovanni F. Bignami Imminent Science What Remains to be Discovered GiovanniF.Bignami PresidentoftheItalianInstituteforAstrophysics INAF Rome,Italy PresidentofCOSPAR COSPAR Paris,France AuthorizedtranslationfromItalianlanguageedition publishedbyZanichelli:“Cosarestadascoprire” ©2012ArnoldoMondadoriEditoreS.p.A.,Milano TranslationbyMarialuisaBignami ISBN978-88-470-5351-9 ISBN978-88-470-5352-6(eBook) DOI10.1007/978-88-470-5352-6 SpringerMilanHeidelbergNewYorkDordrechtLondon LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2014932420 ©Springer-VerlagItalia2014 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpart of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation,broadcasting,reproductiononmicrofilmsorinanyotherphysicalway,andtransmissionor informationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilar methodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped.Exemptedfromthislegalreservationarebriefexcerpts inconnectionwithreviewsorscholarlyanalysisormaterialsuppliedspecificallyforthepurposeofbeing enteredandexecutedonacomputersystem,forexclusiveusebythepurchaserofthework.Duplication ofthispublicationorpartsthereofispermittedonlyundertheprovisionsoftheCopyrightLawofthe Publisher’s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer.PermissionsforusemaybeobtainedthroughRightsLinkattheCopyrightClearanceCenter. 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Printedonacid-freepaper SpringerispartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia(www.springer.com) Contents 1 Prologue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 Indeed,SomethingWeDidDiscover. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3 IsThereAnybodyOutThere?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 4 UnderstandingMatterandEnergyintheUniverse. . . .. . . . . . .. . . 31 5 AlltheEnergyYouDreamof. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 6 Life:Here,ThereandEverywhere. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 7 ARecorderforCicero,aUSBKeyforMozartandHot PepperforEverybody. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 8 Genetics,Epigenetics,MedicineandMethuselahFlies. . . . . . . . . . . 75 9 ToolsoftheTradeforBuildingaFuture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 10 Epilogue:TheDiscoveriesThatWillChangeEverything. . . . . . . . . 97 v Chapter 1 Prologue (Somewhat Outlandish) In the end, I met Mr. Qfwfq. The legendary character in Italo Calvino’s The Cosmicomics really exists and early yesterday morning he landed on my desk. Just to show off, to demonstrate what he is able to do, he arrived on board a miniature spaceship, the Von Braun, streamlined in 1950s style, which went through walls with no difficulty nor noise. I immediately saw, and valued, the fact that the spaceship was a way of appearing chosen as a gracious tribute to us poorTerrestrials. With an elegant landing in the middle of my messy papers, that did not move becausethespaceshipofcoursedidnotexist,fromatinydooroutcamegracefullya diminutivegreenmanwhointroducedhimself. Qfwfq(picturebyLucioChiappetti) G.F.Bignami,ImminentScience,DOI10.1007/978-88-470-5352-6_1, 1 ©Springer-VerlagItalia2014 2 1 Prologue Mr.Qfwfq,besideshavingafascinatingpalindromicname,isverynice,delivers himself inanelegant telepathic language, understood allthrough our Galaxy, and has this to his credit that he knows all the answers. He of course also knew I was thinking about what remains to be discovered (for us poor Terrestrials, I mean, certainlynotforhimself,aGalactic).Soheofferedtohelpme,bymakinguseofa methodofhisown. “Tobeginwith”,sayshe,“forsakeanyhopeofguessingonanyforecast.What younowthinkremainstobediscoveredwillhavenothingtosharewithwhatinthe end you Terrestrials will discover. As my Galactic generals know (and your Terrestrial ones too), the best plans, worked out with great care the night before (thebattle),aregoodtobethrownawaytenminutesafterthebattlebegins:usually theenemyisdifferentfromwhatisexpected”. “Andsinceforusscientistsourenemyistheunknown,goodGod,Ihavereally nohope...”,Isay. “Yes”,saysQfwfq,“butifplansareuseless,planning,theactivityofplanning,is essential.Thusyoumusttrainyourselftoforesee”. Dumbfoundlookonmyface:“How?” “Easy” says Qfwfq. “I’ll teach you, with maieutic method. To begin with, you must imagine that I know all the answers, at least compared with you (that’s not hard...).ButyoumustacceptthatIcannotgiveyousolutions;thiswouldbeagainst GEP,theGalacticEvolutionPostulate:eachspeciesofso-calledintelligentbeings mustfendforitself.ForthetimebeingyouTerrestrialsaredisastrous;we’llseeif youcanimprove”. “Yes,buthow?Sinceyou’renotgivingmeanswers”. “I’ll help you to work out the correct answers in your little Terrestrial head”. Thus saying Qfwfq took to stroking his big round green head with its aerials. “Which means I will help you to get clearer ideas for your plans on what to look forinthefuture.Orrather,fromtimetotimeI’llsendyouatelepathicanonymous ideawithoutyourrealizingit.Intheend,youmessyTerrestrialshallneverknowif you are writing the book yourself, or if on the contrary it’s me speaking through you”. “Good God, thank you, but it makes me uneasy; we Terrestrials had similar traumaticexperiencesinthepast.Withtruthsdisclosedandvoicesfrominsideyou neverknowifyou’llendupatthestakeoronthealtar.Andbesides,howwouldI knowtheyweretherightquestions?” “ThisisanotherquestionIcannotanswer.Butaftersome50moreorbitsofyour planet,atadateyouwouldcall2062,I’lljumponacomet,theoneyoucallHalley, thatwillpassagainbyyou.Bythenyouwillnotbethereanylonger,thehandfulof moleculesyouaremadeofwillhavemixedupwithalltheothers,butpleasetellthis storytosomeyoungerhandfulofmolecules,availableatthetime.Andanyhow,as theysay,keepanopenmind”. And puff! The same way he had arrived Mr. Qfwfq disappeared without my perceivingthefact. Iimmediatelyfeltverylonely,butalso,Ishallsayit,verymuchstimulatedinmy Terrestrialpride.Here,Itoldmyself,onemustnotmakeablunder.Onemustshow 1 Prologue 3 thesewiseguyswithagreatbiggreenhead,balancingthemselvesonthosefunny littlelegs,thatifwegoaboutit,weTerrestrialstoo... Let’sgetstarted,then.Weshalltrytomeditateonwhatisstilltobediscovered, thatisonthemostimportantthingswedonotknow,takingourhint,atleastinpart, fromthequestionstobeaskedtoanalienthatknowsalltheanswers. The issue of which questions to ask an alien is not trivial, especially if one supposesthealientoknowalltheanswersandthustobeabletogiveunderstand- able answers to us poor humans. That’s not all: the answers should also be easily recognizableascorrectoratleastjustifiable.Eachoneofusisconvincedheorshe have the most interesting, most useful and most intelligent questions. Carl Sagan usedtosaythatweshouldperhapsrunaprizecompetitionforthebestquestionsto analien.Waitingforittobeannounced,hereismyparticularchoiceofquestions for Mr. Qfwfq. On the Web site http://www.giovannibignami.it/ every reader can practicethinkinguphisown.OfcourseMr.QfwfqneveransweredmeorIwould alreadyhavewonacoupleofNobelPrizes. Tenquestionstobeaskedtoanalien,or,whatIaskedMr.Qfwfq: 1. Wheredoyoucomefromandhowdidyougethere? 2. Whatisyourlifelike?Howisitdifferentfromoursandthereforedoyouknow whatislife?I know, Icould take ahair ofyours andanalyse it,butyouhave none on that lovely big head of yours. Or I could take a drop of your spit, assumingyouspit,butitissimplerifyoutellmeyourselfhowyouaremade, please. 3. How can you make telepathy work so well? Is there a “universal” language? Whatisforyoualanguage? 4. Forus,butIhopeforyoutoo,physicsandallothersciencesgiveadescription oftheworld.Doesa“theoryofeverything”reallyexist,auniversalparadigm forphysicsormaybeforallsciences,Imeansomethingthatcandescribeina uniformandunivocalwayalltheforcesandthusallthephenomenainnature? 5. DearQfwfq,youmustbearwithme.Mendeleevruinedus,wehaveamaniafor well-orderedtablesthatexplainwithgrowingcomplexitytheorderinNature; and we would like to know if there is something (anything) of the sort that couldhelpusunderstand,byorganizingthem,thechargesandmassesofallthe “elementary”particlesofmatter,atleastthoseofwhichwearemadeourselves, such as quarks and leptons. For the time being we only have barren and disorganizednumbers. 6. Listen, do you know if antiprotons fall to the ground? We have not yet been able to prove it, although of course everybody believes it. For sure if the principle of “strong” equivalence holds, then gravity is only attractive, and antimattertooshouldbeattractedbymatter.Itisasortofrevealedtruthandwe allmustbelieveit,butintheendseeinganantiprotonactuallyfallingwouldbe suchasight... 7. DoestheDarwiniantheoryofevolutionexistwithyoutooanddoesitwork?Is itapartofyourfamousGEP?DoesitmakesensetorenderDarwin’stheoryso general as to include the evolution of matter before life is formed, by going 4 1 Prologue back to that stock which is certainly common also between me as a man and you,Mr.Qfwfq,thatistheBigBang? 8. Bytheway,howdidBigBangcropup?WasitmadebyGod? 9. With us, mathematicians have been stuck for the past century and a half on “Riemann’sconjecture”,buttheycannotmakeheadortailwithit:theydonot knowyethowtomakeprimenumbers.Doyouknowwhatprimenumbersare? Canyouteachmeatricktocalculatethem? 10. Doyoudietoo?Whatdoesdyingmean?Whatdoeslivingmean?
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