Book 23 of 26 books for 2024! I managed to sneak in one more for 2024; next year, I’m aiming for 30.
I’ve written a lot about Michael Faraday on this blog, and one of my favorite anecdotes is the conversation he had with Humphry Davy when he first accepted a job from him. Faraday, trained as a bookbinder, thought that the trades were “vicious and selfish” and that the sciences were “amiable and liberal.” Faraday told this to Davy, and recalled his response:
He smiled at my notion of the superior moral feelings of philosophic men, and said he would leave me to the experience of a few years to set me right on that matter.
The reality is that scientists can be mean and petty and science can be incredibly politicized and wander far from a noble pursuit of truth, as can humanity as a whole — even when the consequences can be catastrophic. This is largely the theme of Isaac Asimov’s classic 1972 novel The Gods Themselves. Somehow, I’ve had this book on my shelf for years and think I actually started reading it at one point but got distracted with other things: while wandering my bookshelves, I came across the long-neglected copy and decided it was time to read it. And I’m glad I did!
In the novel, humanity has discovered a new, effectively unlimited, source of energy by swapping matter with an alien universe. But when a few scientists suspect that this exchange may have unforeseen catastrophic consequences, they find that their attempts to warn people are thwarted at ever turn by human nature.
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Skulls in the Stars 