Welcome
From the editor.
by Neil Caudle
Right: The cover of the print version of our Spring 2008 issue.
Very often in these pages, we probably leave the impression that the value of research lies in what we have already learned. We describe a study, summarize its findings, and speculate about their meaning and utility. We don’t talk very much about what really gets us going — the scary-vast unknown.
A few years ago, I interviewed Christian de Duve for a program at the Morehead Planetarium. He had won the Nobel Prize for his work in cell biology, and we were talking about the origins of life. At the end of the interview, I asked him how we should go about attracting young people to science. Here is what he said:
The challenges that face young people are the same as the challenges that have been facing scientists ever since science began. It’s the attraction of the unknown, the need to understand what is not understood. It would be a tremendous mistake to assume that we understand everything today. We just understand a few things, and it gives us the feeling, “Oh yes, we’ve solved the problem,” but no. There are huge problems waiting to be solved, many important discoveries waiting to be made. We should tell young people, “Go into science because the unknown is waiting for you, and what is not known and not understood today is bound to be more exciting and more interesting than what we understand already.”
This reminded me of some advice I’d read from the poet and critic Randall Jarrell. I cannot quote him verbatim, but the gist of what he said was this: Go out to the edge of your understanding, and write about what you don’t know about what you do know.
Yes, scientists and poets have to know things. They master a great many facts and equations, methods and mechanics. This is their steep, rocky trail to the summit, the edge, and the limits of what is known. They study hard and learn because they want to go beyond. So if you want to turn your children on to science or poetry or any other risky, exciting, obsessive endeavor, reveal to them how little we adults really know. Tell your children that the great unknown is waiting. And there will always, always be enough to go around.
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