Out of My Mind: A Cosmic Flow
Jeremy Bernstein
Not long ago I was invited to dinner to meet a young artist who, I was told, had recently developed a strong interest in physics, especially in the physics of elementary particles my own field of research. Ever eager to bridge the yawning crevasse that, it appears, separates the two cultures coupled with the prospect of an excellent meal I accepted at once. Upon my arrival, it turned out that the young man in question was accompanied by an attractive girlfriend and that she too had a burgeoning interest in the physics of elementary particles. This intriguing concidence, it developed, did not have its origin in any of the more recent discoveries in our discipline, but rather in a book they had read that, according to them, demonstrated that elementary particle physics provided a scientific basis for many of the revelations of Eastern mysticism. Could I, they wondered, enlighten them further on this remarkable development? Their faces, however, fell to half-mast when I confessed that (a) I had never heard of the source of their inspirationone Fritjof Capra and that (b) I had not read his chef d'oeuvre, The Tao of Physics, which, they assured me, was the book in which this reconciliation was detailed. They were further discomfited when I remarked that for the sake of Eastern mystic philosophy I hoped it wasn't true. In fact, I added, if I were a Tibetan monk or the swami in an ashram in New Delhi and if Fritjof Capra or anyone else came to my door clutching the latest copy of the Physical Review
•Jan 1, 2016•0 citations