3.1272 serendipity, cont. (76)

Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca)
Fri, 6 Apr 90 22:46:13 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 1272. Friday, 6 Apr 1990.


(1) Date: Thu, 5 Apr 90 12:41:32 EDT (15 lines)
From: Donald Spaeth 041 339-8855 x6336 <GKHA13@CMS.GLASGOW.AC.UK>

(2) Date: Fri, 6 Apr 90 20:35:03 EDT (12 lines)
From: ruhleder@sloth.ICS.UCI.EDU
Subject: Re: Information Technology and Classical Scholarship

(3) Date: 6 April 1990 (29 lines)
From: Willard McCarty <MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject: serendipity in science

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 5 Apr 90 12:41:32 EDT
From: Donald Spaeth 041 339-8855 x6336 <GKHA13@CMS.GLASGOW.AC.UK>

Dear Willard,
Richard Feynman, the physicist, related in a televised interview
how a student tossing a plate in the air gave him an idea which
led to a Nobel prize. Apparently, he saw someone toss up a plate
with the university (Stanford?) crest in the cafeteria and the
crest rotated at a different rate than the plate itself (or seemed
to). This set him thinking. I'm afraid I don't remember the
scientific details. Feynman used this anecdote to argue that
pure science needs to be funded in its own right since one never
knows what bright thoughts with unexpected applications pure
science might come up with.
Don
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------23----
Date: Fri, 6 Apr 90 20:35:03 EDT
From: ruhleder@sloth.ICS.UCI.EDU
Subject: Re: Information Technology and Classical Scholarship

Let me try to contribute a couple of stories about play, etc.
leading to discovery. The one that comes to mind is about the
discovery of the structure of the benzene. It is shaped like a ring
and the scientist (whose name I cannot recall; my officemate thinks
the name is Kekule) ``discovered'' the structure after dreaming about
a snake that was writhing around, biting its own tail. The other one
is Benjamin Franklin ``discovering'' electricity while flying a kite,
which I'm sure is familiar to you.
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 6 April 1990
From: Willard McCarty <MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject: serendipity in science

My thanks to those who have sent in suggestions about serendipity and
other sorts of play. Very helpful. Today I received by telephone news
about another source that some of you may want to know about:

Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer, _Leviathan and the Air Pump: Hobbes,
Boyle, and the Experimental Life_ (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1985).

I have only read a page or two, but the thing looks like a major
discovery itself. Well written, a pleasure to read. Now, how often does
that happen these days?

My purpose in asking the question is to get clear a basic problem about
electronic communication: what role does it play in the intellectual
life, or what role could it play? Computers bring out the homo ludens in
all of us, and I think that the playfulness of many contributions to
Humanist has a very important function. By indirections we find
directions out. Or so my twisted argument is developing.



Yours, Willard McCarty