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 (click for larger image) Charles Arrington at Fall 2008 Convocation |
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A Whimsical Discourse on Science
Greetings to you all, especially you bright, accomplished students who are eager to “drink from Wisdom’s fountain pure.” I am pleased to have the chance to talk with you about two aspects of this special year that is beginning for Furman- the Fiftieth Anniversary of the opening of the “new” campus and the Year of the Sciences. I will also mention opportunities offered by a third special circumstance, the new curriculum and calendar that have just begun. Fifty years ago on September 18, 1958, my junior year at Furman, classes began on this campus. This move changed the University in a profound way, ultimately bringing the men and women together on the same site and providing Furman with prospects for growth that were not possible on the two old campuses in downtown Greenville. We could not have imagined fifty years ago the campus facilities and academic programs that are now available to you. Just a brief glimpse of Furman in those dim and distant, but happy years—The buildings on campus then were four men’s dorms in the quadrangle, the old gym, the science building- just the middle third of old Plyler Hall, the classroom building (Furman Hall), the Library, and the Dining Hall. All the women except the seniors were still on the downtown site, known as the ZOO. We had Saturday classes, compulsory chapel twice a week, mandatory study in dorm rooms for freshmen, evening curfew for all women, and restrictive dress codes, especially for the women. Tuition and fees for the full year were $525, and room and board $575. I well remember the Thursday evening meal- grits, boiled spinach, and ham. So much for nostalgia. With the completion of the Townes Science Center, this academic year is designated the Year of the Sciences. You will hear more about the various events throughout the year. We think of this celebration as the Party Around Townes. Keep in touch! With that in mind I offer for your edification a Whimsical Discourse on Science, beginning with a passage, slightly edited, from an irreverent, observer of contemporary American life - Dave Barry. His remarks on college will be especially informative for members of the class of 2012. Dave Barry On College: What's college all about College is basically a bunch of rooms where you sit for roughly two thousand hours and try to memorize things. The two thousand hours are spread out over four years; you spend the rest of the time sleeping and trying to get dates. Basically, you learn two kinds of things in college: 1. Things you will need to know in later life (two hours). 2. Things you will not need to know in later life (1,998 hours). These are the things you learn in classes whose names end in -ology, -osophy, -istry, -ics, and so on. The idea is, you memorize these things, then write them down in little exam books, then forget them. If you fail to forget them, you become a professor and have to stay in college for the rest of your life. After you've been in college for a year or so, you're supposed to choose a major, which is the subject you intend to memorize and forget the most things about. Here is a very important piece of advice: be sure to choose a major that does not involve Known Facts and Right Answers. This means you must not major in mathematics, physics, biology, or chemistry, because these subjects involve actual facts. If, for example, you major in mathematics, you're going to wander into class one day and Professor Rall will say: "Define the cosine integer of the quadrant of a rhomboid binary axis, and extrapolate your result to five significant vertices." If you don't come up with exactly the answer he has in mind, you fail. The same is true of chemistry: if you write in your exam book that carbon and hydrogen combine to form oak, Professor Knight will flunk you. He wants you to come up with the same answer he and all the other chemists have agreed on. Scientists are extremely snotty about this. So you should major in subjects like English, philosophy, psychology, and sociology -- subjects in which nobody really understands what anybody else is talking about, and which involve virtually no actual facts. I attended classes in all these subjects, so I'll give you a quick overview of one: ENGLISH: This involves writing papers about long books you have read little snippets of just before class. Here is a tip on how to get good grades on your English papers: Never say anything about a book that anybody with any common sense would say. For example, suppose you are studying Moby-Dick. Anybody with any common sense would say that Moby-Dick is a big white whale, since the characters in the book refer to it as a big white whale roughly eleven thousand times. So in your paper, you say Moby-Dick is actually the Republic of Ireland. Your professor (this could be Rogers, Crowe, or Allen), who is sick to death of reading papers and never liked Moby-Dick anyway, will think you are enormously creative. If you can regularly come up with lunatic interpretations of simple stories, you should major in English. I chose this somewhat biased account of college in order to make a point about science. Dave Barry, for all his skill, is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. Science is not a bunch of right answers! Let me give you my definition of science. Science is the process by which one acquires a rational understanding of the physical world. Remember this perspective- science is not a body of knowledge; it is a process by which one becomes engaged in acquiring knowledge. The process of science gives rise to a useful, intriguing body of knowledge that can be found in textbooks and encyclopedias. But doing science is not memorizing the periodic table or the cosine of 60o. It is using the periodic table to plan the synthesis of compounds that can capture sunlight and change water into hydrogen and oxygen, or being able to figure out what the cosine of 60o is if you have forgotten. Of course, engaging in science requires preparation—knowledge of ideas, concepts, and principles that come from the work of others. But that is just the starting point. In the practice of science there is no proscribed set of rules for carrying out the process , no “scientific method.” Rather, there are characteristics that typify the process of science. Here are a few: curiosity, conjecture, creativity, ingenuity, experimentation, persistence, analysis, modeling, dissemination, verification, application. The process of science is, for the most part, passed on by tutorial and master/apprentice relationships. One truly learns science by doing, not by reading about it. I should provide a brief history of the development of science; here it is. As was the case with much of what we call Western Thought, the Greeks began the enterprise of natural philosophy and did especially well in mathematics. The word, science, comes from the Latin scientia, which means knowledge. The root, scio, means I know or understand. Francis Bacon said, “Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est. “ And thus knowledge itself is power. Science as we know it began to flower during the renaissance in the 16th century. Galileo, Kepler, Descartes, Bacon, Newton are among those who contributed to this development. Alexander Pope paid tribute to Newton with the couplet: “Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night: God said, Let Newton be! and all was light. Science flourished, actually exploded, in the century in which we all were born. Science has come to occupy a prominent place in government, business, agriculture, medicine, sports, and education. Today scientific knowledge represents a significant component of human understanding. Let’s consider applications of science. I want to mention one example of science and technology in a local context. Look at your cell phone. The display is an LCD. In the early 1970’s my colleague, Scott Pyron, was engaged with Furman students in synthesizing and characterizing molecules that form liquid crystals. They examined the structures necessary for the molecules to align in an electric field. They did not get a patent, but they were engaged in doing science that has developed into a major tool of our daily lives. We don’t harvest LCDs. We don’t hunt and capture them. They have come as the fruit of extensive, careful scientific study that began with no idea that it might result in displays for phones, televisions, or computers. One historical anecdote about science and technology- Michael Faraday was a self-educated genius who made major discoveries in the 19th century in the fields of chemistry and physics. He studied the relationship between electrical current and magnetic fields and invented electromagnets, transformers, and electric motors. Once when Faraday was explaining a discovery to Gladstone he was asked, "But after all what use is it?" Faraday responded, "Why sir, there is every probability you will be able to tax it." Another area of application-- Many of you have an interest in science because of its relevance to contemporary medicine. Do you know that for millennia medicine was anything but scientific? Hippocrates, who gave medicine the Hippocratic oath and Galen, a skilled physician and surgeon of the second century CE, were among the many practicing physicians in the ancient world who believed the human body was filled with four humors: blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. Thus bloodletting was used as a medical treatment when the body was thought to be out of balance with too much blood. This unscientific, incorrect model held sway until well into the 19th century. Only in the 19th and 20th centuries did medicine become more effective as a result of scientific advances in the understanding of disease and the development of treatments such as antibiotics. We live in a promising time when the fruits of serious scientific research in medicine are providing for healthier lives for those fortunate enough to live in an affluent society. Science is useful; but remember, useful understanding comes from the pursuit of knowledge by engaging in the process of research. I mention only one other aspect of science. Engaging in scientific research is intellectually rewarding, satisfying, stimulating, and lots of fun (but occasionally frustrating). Finally, I want to compare the nature of science and the nature of education. In recent years Furman’s educational program has developed along the lines of a model that incorporates the perspective I have presented: that there is a difference between learning facts and engaging in the process of acquiring new knowledge. This educational paradigm we call Engaged Learning. We think of a collection of classes as the curriculum. Furman offers extra-curricular activities that you enjoy. Let’s call engagement in the process the ultra-curriculum- beyond the curriculum, outside the classroom. You will find in your years at Furman that the most significant intellectual growth comes from involvement in the ultra curriculum. Athletics provide an illustrative example. In any sport the participants do more than listen to lectures and read books about the sport. They train and practice on the field or in the gym. Athletes don’t just study about sports. They participate. The test is the game or the race. In the arts you act, visualize, create, sing, play instruments. In humanities you come to understand what others have understood but then incorporate this knowledge as you form your own ideas about life, responsibility, good and evil, joy and sorrow, ultimate and trivial. Science students participate in research- they do science. In this sense the new curriculum will encourage students to take greater responsibility for their intellectual growth. Your involvement in the ultra curriculum prepares you to play a significant role in the world you live in after four years in this tender, lovely Garden of Eden. You must engage in the process creatively, critically, and passionately. You may not believe me, but your creative engagement with the activities of your discipline or special interests will, in the long run, be more significant than any grades you get in courses as a result of knowing for a brief time the correct answer to a series of questions. May you become liberated from an obsessive concern about grades and become free to participate in intellectual inquiry, creative exploration, and thoughtful contemplation. Science is engaging in a process. Education is a process. Life is a process. Enjoy participating in this marvelous adventure! I close with a Student’s Prayer from St. Thomas Aquinas. Creator of all things, true source of light and wisdom, origin of all being, graciously let a ray of your light penetrate the darkness of my understanding. Take from me the double darkness in which I have been born, an obscurity of sin and ignorance. Give me a keen understanding, a retentive memory, and the ability to grasp things correctly and fundamentally. Grant me the talent of being exact in my explanations and the ability to express myself with thoroughness and charm. Point out the beginning, direct the progress, and help in the completion. I ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Charles A. Arrington, Jr. Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus Furman University September 4, 2008 |
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