Imminent Science: What Remains to be Discovered

104 Pages·2014·3.157 MB·English

by  Giovanni F. Bignami (auth.)

Giovanni F. Bignami
Imminent
Science
What Remains to be Discovered
Imminent Science
.
Giovanni F. Bignami
Imminent Science
What Remains to be Discovered
GiovanniF.Bignami
PresidentoftheItalianInstituteforAstrophysics
INAF
Rome,Italy
PresidentofCOSPAR
COSPAR
Paris,France
AuthorizedtranslationfromItalianlanguageedition
publishedbyZanichelli:“Cosarestadascoprire”
©2012ArnoldoMondadoriEditoreS.p.A.,Milano
TranslationbyMarialuisaBignami
ISBN978-88-470-5351-9 ISBN978-88-470-5352-6(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-88-470-5352-6
SpringerMilanHeidelbergNewYorkDordrechtLondon
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2014932420
©Springer-VerlagItalia2014
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Contents
1 Prologue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 Indeed,SomethingWeDidDiscover. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3 IsThereAnybodyOutThere?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4 UnderstandingMatterandEnergyintheUniverse. . . .. . . . . . .. . . 31
5 AlltheEnergyYouDreamof. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
6 Life:Here,ThereandEverywhere. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
7 ARecorderforCicero,aUSBKeyforMozartandHot
PepperforEverybody. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
8 Genetics,Epigenetics,MedicineandMethuselahFlies. . . . . . . . . . . 75
9 ToolsoftheTradeforBuildingaFuture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
10 Epilogue:TheDiscoveriesThatWillChangeEverything. . . . . . . . . 97
v
Chapter 1
Prologue
(Somewhat Outlandish)
In the end, I met Mr. Qfwfq. The legendary character in Italo Calvino’s The
Cosmicomics really exists and early yesterday morning he landed on my desk.
Just to show off, to demonstrate what he is able to do, he arrived on board a
miniature spaceship, the Von Braun, streamlined in 1950s style, which went
through walls with no difficulty nor noise. I immediately saw, and valued, the
fact that the spaceship was a way of appearing chosen as a gracious tribute to us
poorTerrestrials.
With an elegant landing in the middle of my messy papers, that did not move
becausethespaceshipofcoursedidnotexist,fromatinydooroutcamegracefullya
diminutivegreenmanwhointroducedhimself.
Qfwfq(picturebyLucioChiappetti)
G.F.Bignami,ImminentScience,DOI10.1007/978-88-470-5352-6_1, 1
©Springer-VerlagItalia2014
2 1 Prologue
Mr.Qfwfq,besideshavingafascinatingpalindromicname,isverynice,delivers
himself inanelegant telepathic language, understood allthrough our Galaxy, and
has this to his credit that he knows all the answers. He of course also knew I was
thinking about what remains to be discovered (for us poor Terrestrials, I mean,
certainlynotforhimself,aGalactic).Soheofferedtohelpme,bymakinguseofa
methodofhisown.
“Tobeginwith”,sayshe,“forsakeanyhopeofguessingonanyforecast.What
younowthinkremainstobediscoveredwillhavenothingtosharewithwhatinthe
end you Terrestrials will discover. As my Galactic generals know (and your
Terrestrial ones too), the best plans, worked out with great care the night before
(thebattle),aregoodtobethrownawaytenminutesafterthebattlebegins:usually
theenemyisdifferentfromwhatisexpected”.
“Andsinceforusscientistsourenemyistheunknown,goodGod,Ihavereally
nohope...”,Isay.
“Yes”,saysQfwfq,“butifplansareuseless,planning,theactivityofplanning,is
essential.Thusyoumusttrainyourselftoforesee”.
Dumbfoundlookonmyface:“How?”
“Easy” says Qfwfq. “I’ll teach you, with maieutic method. To begin with, you
must imagine that I know all the answers, at least compared with you (that’s not
hard...).ButyoumustacceptthatIcannotgiveyousolutions;thiswouldbeagainst
GEP,theGalacticEvolutionPostulate:eachspeciesofso-calledintelligentbeings
mustfendforitself.ForthetimebeingyouTerrestrialsaredisastrous;we’llseeif
youcanimprove”.
“Yes,buthow?Sinceyou’renotgivingmeanswers”.
“I’ll help you to work out the correct answers in your little Terrestrial head”.
Thus saying Qfwfq took to stroking his big round green head with its aerials.
“Which means I will help you to get clearer ideas for your plans on what to look
forinthefuture.Orrather,fromtimetotimeI’llsendyouatelepathicanonymous
ideawithoutyourrealizingit.Intheend,youmessyTerrestrialshallneverknowif
you are writing the book yourself, or if on the contrary it’s me speaking through
you”.
“Good God, thank you, but it makes me uneasy; we Terrestrials had similar
traumaticexperiencesinthepast.Withtruthsdisclosedandvoicesfrominsideyou
neverknowifyou’llendupatthestakeoronthealtar.Andbesides,howwouldI
knowtheyweretherightquestions?”
“ThisisanotherquestionIcannotanswer.Butaftersome50moreorbitsofyour
planet,atadateyouwouldcall2062,I’lljumponacomet,theoneyoucallHalley,
thatwillpassagainbyyou.Bythenyouwillnotbethereanylonger,thehandfulof
moleculesyouaremadeofwillhavemixedupwithalltheothers,butpleasetellthis
storytosomeyoungerhandfulofmolecules,availableatthetime.Andanyhow,as
theysay,keepanopenmind”.
And puff! The same way he had arrived Mr. Qfwfq disappeared without my
perceivingthefact.
Iimmediatelyfeltverylonely,butalso,Ishallsayit,verymuchstimulatedinmy
Terrestrialpride.Here,Itoldmyself,onemustnotmakeablunder.Onemustshow
1 Prologue 3
thesewiseguyswithagreatbiggreenhead,balancingthemselvesonthosefunny
littlelegs,thatifwegoaboutit,weTerrestrialstoo...
Let’sgetstarted,then.Weshalltrytomeditateonwhatisstilltobediscovered,
thatisonthemostimportantthingswedonotknow,takingourhint,atleastinpart,
fromthequestionstobeaskedtoanalienthatknowsalltheanswers.
The issue of which questions to ask an alien is not trivial, especially if one
supposesthealientoknowalltheanswersandthustobeabletogiveunderstand-
able answers to us poor humans. That’s not all: the answers should also be easily
recognizableascorrectoratleastjustifiable.Eachoneofusisconvincedheorshe
have the most interesting, most useful and most intelligent questions. Carl Sagan
usedtosaythatweshouldperhapsrunaprizecompetitionforthebestquestionsto
analien.Waitingforittobeannounced,hereismyparticularchoiceofquestions
for Mr. Qfwfq. On the Web site http://www.giovannibignami.it/ every reader can
practicethinkinguphisown.OfcourseMr.QfwfqneveransweredmeorIwould
alreadyhavewonacoupleofNobelPrizes.
Tenquestionstobeaskedtoanalien,or,whatIaskedMr.Qfwfq:
1. Wheredoyoucomefromandhowdidyougethere?
2. Whatisyourlifelike?Howisitdifferentfromoursandthereforedoyouknow
whatislife?I know, Icould take ahair ofyours andanalyse it,butyouhave
none on that lovely big head of yours. Or I could take a drop of your spit,
assumingyouspit,butitissimplerifyoutellmeyourselfhowyouaremade,
please.
3. How can you make telepathy work so well? Is there a “universal” language?
Whatisforyoualanguage?
4. Forus,butIhopeforyoutoo,physicsandallothersciencesgiveadescription
oftheworld.Doesa“theoryofeverything”reallyexist,auniversalparadigm
forphysicsormaybeforallsciences,Imeansomethingthatcandescribeina
uniformandunivocalwayalltheforcesandthusallthephenomenainnature?
5. DearQfwfq,youmustbearwithme.Mendeleevruinedus,wehaveamaniafor
well-orderedtablesthatexplainwithgrowingcomplexitytheorderinNature;
and we would like to know if there is something (anything) of the sort that
couldhelpusunderstand,byorganizingthem,thechargesandmassesofallthe
“elementary”particlesofmatter,atleastthoseofwhichwearemadeourselves,
such as quarks and leptons. For the time being we only have barren and
disorganizednumbers.
6. Listen, do you know if antiprotons fall to the ground? We have not yet been
able to prove it, although of course everybody believes it. For sure if the
principle of “strong” equivalence holds, then gravity is only attractive, and
antimattertooshouldbeattractedbymatter.Itisasortofrevealedtruthandwe
allmustbelieveit,butintheendseeinganantiprotonactuallyfallingwouldbe
suchasight...
7. DoestheDarwiniantheoryofevolutionexistwithyoutooanddoesitwork?Is
itapartofyourfamousGEP?DoesitmakesensetorenderDarwin’stheoryso
general as to include the evolution of matter before life is formed, by going
4 1 Prologue
back to that stock which is certainly common also between me as a man and
you,Mr.Qfwfq,thatistheBigBang?
8. Bytheway,howdidBigBangcropup?WasitmadebyGod?
9. With us, mathematicians have been stuck for the past century and a half on
“Riemann’sconjecture”,buttheycannotmakeheadortailwithit:theydonot
knowyethowtomakeprimenumbers.Doyouknowwhatprimenumbersare?
Canyouteachmeatricktocalculatethem?
10. Doyoudietoo?Whatdoesdyingmean?Whatdoeslivingmean?