Gravity Chapter
1: Has Science Failed Mankind?
At the turn of the last century there was a general sense of change,
mainly as a result of the huge success of the Industrial
Revolution in raising living standards for many, and an expectation
that there would be further improvements in the quality of life affecting
a wider public. Evidence of this was all around in the larger cities
of Europe and North America, motor vehicles, buses and trains, electric
lighting and appliances, aircraft, telephones, sound recording and
film photography, etc.
The optimism of the general public at this time, it can
be said, has since been exceeded and there have been great
changes and improvements to the quality of life, particularly for
those in countries that were in the forefront of the Industrial Revolution.
For example, communications have improved to the point
where it is possible to travel, at short notice and with
some certainty of arriving safely, in 24 hours to the other
side of the world, we can talk to anyone virtually anywhere in the
world, we can send and receive masses of information electronically
via the internet. The worldwide distribution of goods, such as food,
is very efficient and speedy, housing and personal transport, entertainment
etc. etc. all have improved in quality, affordability and availability.
Also in scientific circles in the beginning of the 1900’s
there was also great optimism that the answers to the basic
structure of matter and the forces of nature would be found.
All the naturally occurring elements had been identified
in the 1800’s and thus the ‘building blocks’ of all the matter in
the universe were identified. In addition the various forms, and
the effects, of radiant energy, such as light and heat, were better
understood even if the causes and means of transmission were not.
Plank and Quantum Theory, Einstein and Relativity, Rutherford and
the atom etc. all contributed to this. The newspapers lauded scientists
and their theories and, partly due to this attention, the public
became interested in science and shared the general scientific optimism
of great things to come.
However one of the main expectations of scientists, that
a Unified Theory of Matter would soon emerge, has not been
met, it was and still is the ‘holy grail’ of science.
This is the ‘job’ of ‘pure’ science and it is important
here to differentiate between ‘pure science’, as represented
for example by theoretical physicists, and Technology or
‘applied science’ as represented by scientists, engineers
and technicians developing new materials and technologies
and ultimately products for specific or for general use.
All the improvements in the quality of life mentioned above
were due to technological advances, for example in materials
technology. The development of new materials and the availability
of these leads inevitably to the development of new or
improved products utilising them, and this is precisely
what has happened in the past, and particularly since the
beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and is ongoing,
for example with the initial and the continuing development of plastics,
which has led to the development of a huge range of individual household
products.
As with the ‘cotton boom’ in the 18th century, the end
result of this has been the availability of a wide range
of cheap, durable products, such as cooking utensils, to
the poorer people of the world. More recent examples are
electronics and specifically, the computer chip.
However with respect to pure science, today, after nearly
a century of the application of quantum mechanics to atomic
theory, theoretical physicists are still unable to provide
a solution as to how the basic forces of nature are generated
or transmitted at atomic level. These basic forces include
the transference or transmission of radiant (heat) energy,
the transmission of light, and electricity and magnetism.
Of course these forces can be quantified by observation
of the practical effects and thus their effects can be
predicted, but the interactions at atomic level that ultimately
result in these effects are not known.
For example two massive metal spheres suspended to counter
the earth’s gravity are gravitationally attracted to one
another and this results in a force and a positional deviation
that can be measured and predicted.
Isaac Newton brilliantly described over three hundred years
ago the laws that gravity obeys throughout the universe,
so we can calculate and predict the effects of this force,
but predicting the effects however is a long way from explaining
ultimately what it is that causes and/or transmits these
forces. In other words specifically how the force of gravity
is generated and transmitted between two bodies through
the intervening space.
Continued >
Back to Gravity Contents >
|
