Curvy Mathematics

P.W. Atkins

Tribute to P.W. Atkins

 It is doubtful that there are chemists in the western world who have never heard of the name P.W. Atkins. He is famous mostly as the author of a spectacular volume of university books about chemistry. In my opinion, he should be honoured for 'The Periodic Kingdom' as it is an outstanding book capable of attracting newbies into the art of manipulating matter: chemistry.

 He chose chemistry back at the age of 15 for various reasons, the most important of which was "the urge to share my joy of understanding from science". For many of us, the joy of understanding an obscure concept or meaning, the pleasure of comprehending a difficult problem or overpassing a mental obstacle is probably the greatest feeling. All students face difficulties, they get disappointed but those who insist, they manage to feel this overwhelming joy of understanding, the quintessence of learning. Science has plenty of such opportunities.

 Difficulties arose during his scientific career too. His real problem was time devotion. Research is extremely demanding, "to do research requires total, obsessional commitment". But "to write books on a large scale requires the same". So how can one organise one's time? Human beings require some "dead" time to sleep, eat, drink, enjoy... No human mind can always be stretched and under tension, eventually it will crack like a bow. The decision, though, to abandon original research because "I was neglecting the young minds of my research group" reflects the altruism which, thankfully, exists in some scientists. There are many university professors and researchers who become pure and strict professionals, they just care about their work and neglect the painful job and stressful role of young assistants and students who sacrifice a lot of their time in order to demonstrate devotion and goodwill to their scientific supervisors.

 It seems that science has not avoided the shroud of marketing. Fame, acknowledgement, money, vanity, still exist among human scientists too. So, this means that apart from being a good scientist, does one have to be a good marketeer too? Unfortunately, science has a gap that allows marketing and public relations to play an important role in one's career. Even today, physicists use the phrase "we believe that...", as in religion or other scientific fields other than natural science which are not based on mathematics. We should not "believe", we should accept facts as valid only when they are proven experimentally and they are consequently backed by mathematics.

 Regarding ordinary people's attitude towards science, we all know that it is of vital importance to alter it. Science needs to become more attractive, more intriguing. Once upon a time, "I would have said 'television'", since television could be described as the fourth authority to create and alter consciences, "but these days people are spending more time away from broadcast TV and more on the Internet, where central authority has no influence. Perhaps some really good scientific version of 'Downton Abbey' would inspire interest". Many people avoid scientific thinking, mostly due to their bad experience with mathematics during school years. If mathematics could become more approachable with a less repulsive appearance, then more people would be attracted to science and spend at least a few Saturday nights occupying their minds with scientific matters. Definitely, mathematics are already simple, pure, universal and democratic as there are no discriminations but a lot of effort is demanded in order to think simply and discover their divine beauty.

 When asked if he would choose the same field of study, if he had the chance to turn back time, the answer is clear: "Yes, it is the central science and enables you to embrace all others". It seems that this answer depends on the point of view of each scientist and the educational system in their country. In any case, a scientist ought to do everything about science at one's maximum effort and capability. Choose properly, present properly and write about it properly.

Moderator: Gauss, Overseers.