Seeing and Believing by Richard Panek, Fourth Estate, 拢6.99, ISBN
0140280618
THE TELESCOPE has done more than any other invention in the past several
centuries to change our perception of where we stand in the Universe.
Discuss.
Richard Panek鈥檚 compact and highly readable book, Seeing and
Believing, provides a thoroughly enjoyable opener to the debate. It is not
a complete history of the telescope, which would require a laundry list of
technological achievements. Rather, Panek provides snapshots of particular
people and events that led to radical philosophical changes in how the Earth鈥檚
place in the cosmos was viewed.
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Astronomy is, as Panek presents it here, a noble scientific pursuit driven
purely by curiosity. Which places it in stark contrast to Dava Sobel鈥檚
Longitude, which dealt with astronomy and timekeeping as means to a
navigational end.
In almost all cases, the major transitions in world view were driven by
individuals armed with new instruments for observing the Universe and with
scepticism about the then-standard cosmology. In each case the conventional
wisdom of the time was that cosmology was 鈥渟olved鈥�.
Panek adopts a leisurely and conversational style as he describes the nature
of the breakthrough accomplishments of Galileo Galilei, William Herschel, George
Hale and Edwin Hubble鈥攖o name but a prominent few. He makes a good, clear
job of setting each of them in their proper cultural, philosophical and
scientific context so we can really appreciate how the telescopic observations
produced a major shift in previously accepted wisdom.
He abandons this comfortable pace only in the final chapter, when he breaks
into a gallop to cover all the astronomy of the last 50 years. Panek emphasises
the many startling discoveries that have come from our modern ability to make
observations across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Still, even in this
section, one of the main themes of the book comes through loud and clear: the
Universe is full of surprises, and our ability to discover new surprises is
limited only by the technology of the time and the preconceptions that might
prevent new searches from being undertaken.
What I find particularly striking in Panek鈥檚 account is the number of times
during the past 400 years when it was assumed that everything there was to
discover had already been found. All that remained to do, eminent astronomers
believed鈥攏ot once but many times鈥攚as to fill in the details. This
tendency to accept cosmological tenets on faith, or because they are the only
ideas that 鈥渕ake sense鈥� given our limited understanding has clearly not
diminished with time or experience. I can think of examples of this in the
present and recent past of astronomy.
And each of the steps that broke these cosy consensuses showed that what was
known was, if correct at all, only a minute fraction of what was there to be
discovered. Panek emphasises the role that serendipity has played in astronomy.
Chance is assisted by the pursuit of simply seeing 鈥渨hat is there鈥�. This is
still essential, as is astronomers鈥� continuing delight at discovering 鈥渘ot more
answers, but more questions鈥�.
Panek鈥檚 experience as a writer for the popular press, both scientific and
otherwise, clearly shows through and is what makes this book a winner. It is a
successful combination of tribute to human curiosity and ingenuity, sociological
study of how science lumbers forward when incontestable evidence supports
radical ideas and, finally, a succinct history of a fascinating invention that
continues to amaze us as it uncovers surprises from the vast remaining
frontier.
Astronomy, and cosmology in particular, is a perfect vehicle for these
philosophical reflections. Rich scientific history complete with true heroes and
unbelievable stories really do coexist with fundamental questions. I cannot
imagine a more poignant little book for providing topics for shared conversation
between scientists and non-scientists.