a random walk in science

[...]... Snow and more specifically about jam and marmalade A few years ago I visited Istanbul I was staying at the Hilton Hotel, one of those places that are now all over the world setting a rather high standard of what I consider a rather inferior way of living One morning at breakfast a very British lady was sitting at a table next to mine ‘Waiter, can I have some marmalade ?’she asked peremptorily A smiling... radar but to a fictitious infrared detector W e gained some valuable months while the Germans invented a beautiful anti-infrared paint and failed to find the true causes of their losses The paint, incidentally, was a Christiansen filter of powdered glass in a transparent matrix over a black base The filter ‘peaked’ in the near infrared, so that incident radiation in this region went through and was... general genus of which orange marmalade is just one subspecies The strongest statement a Dutchman could possibly make would be: ‘The only jam I take at breakfast is orange marmalade’ and that is much less categorical Now it is a curious fact that what may appear to be an arbitrary linguistic convention has a strong influence on our way of thinking Ask a Dutchman and he will patiently explain that marmalade... the weather (and was not eaten by rats).] The year is 1847 Samuda-later a distinguished shipbuilder and naval architect-and Wilkinson are two Directors of the Company They are taking a party of Shareholders for a demonstration ride Thparty is arrived, and Sam& goes into the engine-house SAMUDA: Well, have you a good vacuum? FIRST MAN: No, Sir, we can’t get a good one, nor scarcely any at all, and yet... common in historical and cultural background and in the roots of our languages and civilization Now I should like to suggest that the so-called difference between the two cultures is largely a case of jam and marmalade There exists in Dutch, in German, in the Scandinavian languages, a word Wetenschappen, Wissenschaften, Videnskaber that includes all branches of learning In English science usually refers... high standard of education in Scotland Sir W L Bragg Theoretical zipperdynamics H J Zipkin Atomic medicine John HLawrence 100 authors against Einstein A von Brunn 92 Ultraviolet catastrophe HPoincad 85 86 89 93 94 95 98 IO0 103 Flatland :a romance of many dimensions Edwin A Abbott Schools of physics How a theoretical physicist works YBere . places that are now all over the world setting a rather high standard of what I consider a rather inferior way of living. One morning at breakfast a very British lady was sitting at a table. that statement as arising from a view oflife which to them is anathema ? The devaluation of intuition by mind-evil. A random walk in science begins with a challenge, at once playful in. to be an arbitrary linguistic convention has a strong influence on our way of thinking. Ask a Dutchman and he will patiently explain that marmalade is made like any other jam by boiling crushed