THE CRISIS IN SCIENCE.

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18927, 22 April 1933, Page 4

THE CRISIS IN SCIENCE.

Although the dinner in honour of Einstein on the eve of his departure from the United States for Europe was made the occasion for reviewing the state of the world, it was inevitable that the pass in which science now finds itself should have received attention, says the New York Times. Professor Shapley remarked in passing: “ Even at this close range we can see the mortality of practically all current theories, both of the micrdcosmos and the macrocosmos. There is an over-population of hypotheses; they crowd and cancel one another.”

When hypotheses are so rife it is a sign that physical science is passing through a crisis. The world is acquiring a new outlook, a new philosophy. If there seems to he less stirring of men’s souls than in the time of Copernicus and Galileo, it is because the issues are no longer connected with religion and Aristotelian doctrine. Yet deep within a spiritual change is in progress of which men may not become aware for another century.

The reason for the chaos pictured by Professor Shapley lies in the necessity of soaring beyond experience. After all, experiment and observation can give us only isolated facts. Physics is not a mere collection of facts, with implications that far transcend experience. Never were physical theory and experience so far apart as they are now. We still delude ourselves into believing that matter comes in hard lumps. Physical generalisations are all to the conti’ary. An atom is no longer something that is, but something that happens. It is a collection of events, a process. Hence substance is about to he cast overboard. The tables at which we sit are no longer rigid and dead, but the result of actions and reactions of countless billions of electrons and protons.

If physical science is at present confused, it is because these actions and reactions appear to obey no law. Were a physicist given nothing but haphazard electrons and protons and asked to construct an orderly cosmos, he would throw up his hands in despair. The equations would tell him that the chances are all against planets moving in predictable courses, all against tables and chairs that will necessarily he to-morrow what they are to-day. And yet there is obviously order in the universe—order so overwhelming in its sweep that men are awed into a belief in a creative intelligence. The inconsistency between haphazard atoms and a systematic universe will disappear when at last the 1 mathematicians discover the meaning of certain symbols that they now handy about. "When their meaning and relation are at last revealed the scales will fall from men’s eyes. The universe will stand- out in a more overpowering grandeur. And new Miltons, Beethovens and Michelangelos will be inspired to write greater poetry, compose greater symphonies, paint greater pictures. ____________