Sean Caroll proposes that science itself is an ‘empirical behavior practiced by humans’ . Of course, this means that science is plagued by at best disagreements within the community , and at worst , agitated controversies like the ‘religion’ issue.

In my personal opinion, the problem lies in the way science is projected to the public – it is projected like it is mathematics, like a conjoint twin of the blue-blooded mathematics, but destined to ‘get its hands dirty’. But then , consider this quip from (the) Einstein :

“As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.”

                                                                                                      Albert Einstein, "Geometry and Experience", January 27, 1921

You can imagine that this becomes a major peeve for science, which claims to be in the business of studying and revealing the workings of reality. I do understand that very important role that mathematics plays in making science tangible – but mathematics is a player of the abstract – numbers are ideas that are arranged in equations to reflect reality. In effect , calculus and arithmetic based mathematics is the ultimate simulation of reality.

Science , therefore, uses mathematics only as a tool. Yet, all too often it is dismissed by the populace as a dry, dispassionate subject- exacting, never completely applicable to reality, and working as it should only on a Professor’s blackboard. This view, whether valid or not, is more applicable to mathematics, and science suffers under the transferred epithet.

Science, I conclude then,  needs a new metaphor, and the only part of mathematics that lends an appropriate one is Probability theory.

Bear with me for a moment, and assume that reality (or more appropriately , reality as we understand it) is a collection of probability distributions on increasing orders of complexity and scale. Quite obviously, the most basic of these distributions are those of quantum mechanics – the Schroedinger equation and so on. At the other end of the scale , are the observed cosmic probability distributions – such as the chance of star formation, supernovae, spatial inflation (given the WMAP data) etc. Everything else, from ecology, sociology to music lies in between.

The job of science is to fill up the actual values that determine these distributions. It is apparent in this picture that nothing is impossible or possible – just very likely or unlikely. It is now left to the informed public to decide whether they are going to place their bets on what is a likely or something that has almost no chance of occurring.

This mental model of science provides two major advantages :

Firstly, it makes science overtly non-judgmental – as it should be. It doesn’t say walking on water , virgin births and resurrection from the dead is impossible – just something that isn’t very likely. In fact, it makes it just about as unlikely as thin air transforming into gold bullion. I said overtly earlier because in fact, it lumps together all the ‘unlikeliest , thereby accentuating the ridiculousness of belief in them. If you think walking on water is possible, then you must also believe that fish have developed civilization and are now (put your favorite mockery here) simply taking a break this millennium. Science as a probability function-finder is a way of enabling Stephen Jay Gould’s Magisteria, without causing science to lose it ‘power’ to say something about the world.

Secondly, it makes science more versatile and in many ways, a better representation of reality. Most theories in science, especially in biology, geology and cosmology provide ball-park figures, and rarely the precision of numbers available in physics. Considering a probabilistic spread of values provides a much better assessment of the theory’s power for explaining reality. Of course, even today science does use this premise, especially when applying statistical analysis. Statistics is a useful discipline and yet scientists sometimes think as of statistics is some sort of compromise.

“If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment.”

                                                                                            Ernest Rutherford

The reason, I think, is that scientists have let the mathematicians mislead them with the false glorification of a single , elegant equation that explains everything. Murray Gell-Mann even proposes that the elegant beauty of an equation is in some ways an indication of its correctness. That may be so, but from what we have learnt from every other field of science, is that at least such elegance is NOT scalable. Any set of rules that describes a living cell with its ~100,000 thousand or so different types of molecules does not exhibit the elegance of Maxwell’s equations , or general relativity. It possesses a different kind of beauty – the chaotic charm of a pulsating ménage, a Rube Goldberg machine that has found a purpose – to ensure its existence using the the very thermodynamic laws that is fighting to stay one step ahead of.

Beauty at varied scales Left : Maxwell’s equations – a complete description of all electromagnetic phenomenon Right : a genomic map of the simplest known organism Mycobacterium genitalium, indicating its various functional genetic elements.

With that in mind, in an era when science branches out into unknown territory as a matter of routine, there is a chance to alter its image in the public eye.  It begins with scientists giving up the glorification of elegance, and acceptance of the messy uncertainties whose existence is the only certainty in the complex, dynamic world we find ourselves in.

Perhaps then, and ironically so, by relaxing its own expectations of the precision of reality, and by distancing itself in ideology from its quantitative associate, science will befriend the masses and find the credibility it has lacked throughout history.

                          

xkcd – A Webcomic – Correlation

You have to be a geek to get this

                          

Cosmic Variance , a blog on Discover Magazine, had a post about Mr.John McCain’s snide and sarcastic remark on his Twitroll  "nothing says new jobs for average Americans like investing in astronomy" – he quips. Cosmic Variance puts it down as an appeal to a feeling many average citizens have "Scientists are not You and Me", a sociopsychological reason for the relative unpopularity of science among the bourgeoisie.

There is another reason. It is purely my personal observation that many scientists are unambitious, happy to relax into a comfortable zone the moment they achieve tenure or another position in their career that is secure. The culture of science , as some people have mentioned, actually promotes lethargy after a certain point, because typically, very senior (in terms of years spent) scientists do not often have to justify themselves to anyone, much less the taxpayer.

This astounding lack of passion on the part of such scientists is actually worse than not being good communicators . It undermines the faith people have in science, thereby, relegating science to one of those fields where smarter than average people do what they want, for their own reasons. I imagine, if Albert Einstein asked for a grant to do a certain project, the taxpayers would have no apprehension , considering his public image – wierd, brilliant, and someone who has been so right.

As a graduate student, watching post-docs approach their mid fifties in some cases is not encouraging at all. I am not saying they are incompetent, but they certainly are not inspiring. To put it briefly, science is not “cool” to most people. Society being what it is, fostering religious dogma, not understanding what science is about and watching a fraction of uninspired lab toilers – there is no way they are going to see science as inspiring.

Our thinking and society needs to become more technocratic , for which scientists will have to be brilliant at showing off first (something not apprieciated in today’s science culture). It is little surprise that scientists of our time, who actually thrust themselves into the limelight (Craig Venter, or Dean Kamen, for instance) leave the strongest mark on the social psyche. For the part of the non-scientists, they need to adopt science for what it is, not as a “field” , “ideology” or “competitor to religion” – but simply the systematic study of EVERYTHING.

Pimp Your Science !

*the title of this blog post comes from a review on cell biology my supervisor wrote, titled ‘Pimp my Cell’