History of science, according to Hawking

SUBASH JEYAN

When Hawking began to write his popular book on science, A Brief History of Time, he was told by his publisher that each equation he included in the book would reduce its sales by half. Finally he ended up including just one: Einstein's famous E=mc2. Considering the success the book has had, may be he could have got away with more. But then it may not have become quite as successful. But through the book, and the peculiar circumstances of his own personality, Hawking has indeed become for thelayman the popular face of theoretical science.

And science badly needs as many popular faces as it can muster. It was possible at one stage in history to make fundamental contributions to science by observing apples fall. More or less. But science has since branched and specialised so much, like most other branches of knowledge, that it is now intelligible only to the initiated. The process of initiation itself would be beyond a normal individual's capacity unless one specialises and what one gets is discrete branches of science, each with its own fundamental assumptions and theories. For the uninitiated, it might just as well be mathematical mumbo-jumbo. The major goal of atleast a part of the scientific community, of which Hawking is, of course, a more visible face, is to present a unified theory of science that would explain everything that we see around us. Human reason would then know the mind of God. And such a theory would have to be intelligible to the general public. As Hawking says in his book, "However, if we do discover a complete theory, it should in time be understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist." Concerned as he is with questions of origin, Hawking's book makes explicit the link between the major theories of science and their implied world views. Newton's laws of motion and gravity explained the world in physical terms while still leaving room for God. In fact, Newton was never comfortable with the lack of absolute referential space his laws implied because it went against his notion of an absolute god. And though Einstein got the Nobel Prize for his contributions to quantum mechanics, the randomness and the uncertainty principle it introduced into observed phenomena went against his personal beliefs resulting in the famous quip that God never played dice. Indeed Hawking seems to agree with him when he says that there is order in the universe. Only the laws governing it have to be unearthed.

One of the major impulses behind the book is to make available to the lay person in terms he/she can understand, the history of science as it has developed down the centuries and the major concerns driving it today. Of central importance is the notion of what constitutes a scientific theory. A theory may be put forward for metaphysical, mystical or personal reasons but its real validity revolves around the twin criteria of explaining currently known phenomena and predicting correctly future data. It is always provisional, subject to revision and change.

The two major theories of the 20th Century, general relativity and quantum mechanics, are extremely effective in accurately explaining phenomena, one at the level of the cosmic and the other at the level of the atomic. However, they are known to be inconsistent with each other and the challenge, as Hawking and others see it, is to present a theory that would incorporate both. Hawking's own research involving black holes are efforts in this direction where he uses both the theories to explain black holes and their behaviour. Another major endeavour in this direction is the strings theory and the Strings 2001 conference at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai recently brought together the leading scientists working in this area. A unified theory however, still does not seem to have emerged. The mind of God, it looks, is more elusive than people had thought.

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