Why is it that Hamlet and Moby-Dick are universally recognized as great works of art, whereas the original scientific papers of luminaries such as Albert Einstein or Barbara McClintock—containing creative and imaginative leaps just as profound—are seldom read, even by scientists? Troubled by this incongruity, physicist, novelist and science writer Alan Lightman has collected 25 of the most important scientific publications of the last century in a volume titled The Discoveries. Ranging from Max Planck's introduction of quantum discontinuity into black-body radiation (1900) to Paul Berg's pioneering recombinant DNA techniques (1972), the discoveries marked by these papers represent exhilarating forays into the unknown. Each paper is accompanied by a short essay by Lightman describing the historical context and the scientists' inspirations and motivations. Great scientific papers, Lightman insists throughout, are works of art: Like poetry, these papers have their internal rhythms, their images, their beautiful crystallizations, their sometimes fleeting truths___ In these papers, we see enormously gifted human beings grappling with the nature of the world.
展开▼
