Standing, from left, Roald Hoffmann, Frank H.T. Rhodes and Dale Corson and Hans Bethe, seated, were featured speakers at a symposium at Kendal at Ithaca on May 27 on the future of science. Charles Harrington/University Photography
By Larry Bernard
Have we reached the end of science? Have all the big discoveries been made? Such is the premise of a book, The End of Science, by Scientific American senior writer John Horgan, that has caused considerable discussion in the scientific community.
But a distinguished panel of Cornell scientists took issue with that assertion, and the panelists -- two university presidents emeriti and two Nobel laureates -- explained at a symposium May 27 at Kendal at Ithaca why science still has a long way to go.
"I believe my subject is strong," said Hans A. Bethe, professor emeritus of physics and winner of the Nobel Prize in physics in 1967. "Discoveries in condensed matter are useful for new technologies. A tremendous amount of discoveries will come in astrophysics. I believe a lot of science will come out of both these areas."
Roald Hoffmann, the Frank H.T. Rhodes Professor of Humane Letters and professor of chemistry, who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1981, said major discoveries are on the horizon in his field as well. "In chemistry, we will see exquisite control over chemical reactions. We will gain absolute control ... using the evolution of the human mind."
And Frank H.T. Rhodes, former Cornell president (1977-95) and professor emeritus of geology and mineralogy, agreed that the notion of the end of "big science" is faulty. "I'm an optimist. We are living in what is still the golden age of science. There are exciting developments," he said, citing the "new science of earth systems."
What brought these great minds together was another former Cornell president (1969-77), Dale R. Corson, professor emeritus of physics and a founding resident and chairman of the board of Kendal at Ithaca, a retirement community in Cayuga Heights minutes from campus.
"We are going to try to understand the attitudes in this world about science and what is the status of science today," he told an audience of about 100 people in the Kendal auditorium.
Bethe said it is impossible to predict what discoveries might be made, and, because of that, funding for basic research is critical.
"There are so many numbers of ways that completely abstract discoveries have led to practical devices," Bethe said, citing Einstein's concerns with the properties of light. "He knew light gets emitted and absorbed, but there is also induced emission. Forty to 50 years later, this led to the discovery of the laser, a very important industrial device.
"The most unlikely kind of research -- totally abstract -- may lead in the distant future to the most important industrial products," Bethe said.
The panel also addressed the problem of scientific illiteracy and the need for social science research to help problems afflicting society.
"We have terrible social problems," Corson said. "Crime, drugs, the disintegration of the family. We don't really have a body of scholars to address these issues; at the time of our greatest need, we don't have expertise."
Said Rhodes: "We have neglected the social sciences. The humanities have been short-changed. We undervalue the contribution of the social sciences."
Bethe said that the United States could learn a lesson from prewar Germany. "In Germany, you were highly honored to teach high school. Most teachers had doctor's degrees. I don't see why we cannot recreate that in our society."
The panel unanimously took issue with statements of Vaclav Havel, president of the Czech Republic, who attacked science as spiritually void and for being elitist.
"I think Havel is off his rocker on this one," Hoffmann said. "I think I understand what he's saying -- it's a reaction to the intellectual arrogance of science. There is an admitted arrogance to science. I think it's also a reaction to the relative wealth of science and technology."