Just think what you'll know tomorrow
One of my favorite scenes from movieland is in the film "Men in Black". Agents Kay and Jay are sitting on a park bench in Manhattan. Jay has just discovered the "reality" of alien life on earth. Kay is explaining some fundamentals. Here is the direct quote.
Agent Kay:
1500 years ago everybody knew the earth was the center of the universe.
500 years ago everybody knew the earth was flat.
And 15 minutes ago you knew that people were alone on this planet.
Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.
Recently I started reading the Bill Bryson book "A Short History of Nearly Everything". Lately I've gotten into the habit of buying a book and not getting to it for weeks and sometimes months. That is the case here.
I finally picked this book up and got serious. And I'm enjoying the experience. I highly recommend this read.
What impresses me most is that Bryson isn't a scientist and admits that until he wrote this book he didn't know much about science. In his words:
"I didn't know what a proton was, or a protein, didn't know a quark from a quasar, didn't know how an atom was put together and couldn't imagine by what means anyone deduced such a thing.
Suddenly I had a powerful, uncharacteristic urge to know something about these matters and to understand how people figured them out."
I understand the urge to know, the desire to understand. But as I've read I've wondered how Bryson developed enough knowledge to write this book. I even wonder how much he gets right. Not because of his credibility. More because of my own ignorance.
I've enjoyed Bryson's take on the history of science. He has a good way of describing the scientific details while bringing to life the characters. He also provokes wonder regarding the age of the earth, the vastness of the universe, the unknowable smallness of an atom and the limits of our understanding.
For instance, Bryson points out that until the 1960s the theory of continental drift was nearly universally accepted. During that time theories regarding tectonic plates developed. At first these theories were laughed at by knowledgeable individuals. Now we know that there are between 7 and 10 major tectonic plates and 20 or so minor ones. I laugh at all the times Bryson says, "now we now." Perhaps we just think we know.
Science is constantly evolving. It's fascinating to see just how little is understood. I've read about the crust, mantle and core of the earth since I was a small boy in elementary school. The accounts sound authoritative. Almost as if a group of exploring geophysicists had gone to the center of the earth and returned. We are told that the center of the earth is many thousands of times more dense than anything we know here on the surface and that the temperature could approach that of the sun's, between 7,000 and 13,000 degrees celsius. Interesting facts.
At least until Bryson talks about mankind's attempts to drill deep into the earth. The Russians worked for 19 years to go as deep as possible. At the end of nearly two decades they had drilled 12,262 meters into the crust of the earth. (That's 7.6 miles in terms Americans understand.) It's a respectable and perhaps even impressive depth. But as Bryson describes it, if the earth were an apple the Russians wouldn't have gotten through the skin. So much for journey to the center of the earth.
There is a lot we don't know about the earth and the universe that surrounds us. We are ever exploring. Just think what we'll know tomorrow..........
9:27:23 PM 
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