The Joy of Why How Is Science Even Possible?
Jun 20, 2024
Nigel Goldenfeld, a physicist renowned for his insights on the universe's complexities, joins co-host Steven Strogatz. They dive into why science succeeds in unraveling nature's enigmas, despite its apparent complexity. The pair discuss the importance of asking the right questions and the surprising phenomenon of emergence, where new properties arise in different scales. They also explore the intersection of mathematics and various scientific fields, from physics to biology, and reflect on how simple theoretical frameworks often yield profound insights.
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Nature's Surprising Comprehensibility
- Nature is comprehensible because the laws of physics are amazingly simple and discoverable by humans.
- This simplicity enables profound understanding and technological advances in multiple scientific fields.
Science Focuses on What Works
- The success of science is partly due to focusing on problems where mathematics is effective.
- Many scientific attempts fail, and we mainly see the successful, simpler cases like in physics.
Einstein’s Gravitational Waves Insight
- Einstein predicted gravitational waves using the principle of equivalence and mathematics like Riemannian geometry.
- His theory, the general relativity, explains gravity more accurately than Newton and was confirmed by modern observations.