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THE MAKING OF A PHYSICIST: A TALK WITH MURRAY GELL-MANN [7.2.03] Uncharacteristically, I discussed my application to Yale with my father, who asked, "What were you thinking of putting down?" I said, "Whatever would be appropriate for archaeology or linguistics, or both, because those are the things I'm most enthusiastic about. I'm also interested in natural history and exploration." He said, "You'll starve!" After all, this was 1944 and his experiences with the Depression were still quite fresh in his mind; we were still living in genteel poverty. He could have quit his job as the vault custodian in a bank and taken a position during the war that would have utilized his talents — his skill in mathematics, for example — but he didn't want to take the risk of changing jobs. He felt that after the war he would regret it, so he stayed where he was. This meant that we really didn't have any spare money at all. I asked him, "What would you suggest?" He mentioned engineering, to which I replied, "I'd rather starve. If I designed anything it would fall apart." And sure enough when I took an aptitude test a year later I was advised to take up nearly anything but engineering. Then my father suggested, "Why don't we compromise — on physics?"
 Murray Gell-Mann: Video DSL+ | Modem Requires Real Player plug-in (Free Download)  In 1951, at the age of 21, Murray Gell-Mann was a post-doc at the Institute
for Advanced Study in Princeton, where he often encountered Albert
Einstein. "I could have spoken with him," Murray says, "but
at that time I didn't like the kind of people who approached great
figures, introduced themselves, got into conversation with them, and
reported the experience to others, saying "I know Einstein," and
so on. So I didn't approach him. Today, I would almost certainly behave
differently, asking the old man about his thoughts years ago when he
was carrying out the greatest physics research since Newton's. It would
have been exciting. Instead, in 1951 I said "Good morning" occasionally
and Einstein would answer with "Guten morning" or something
of the kind, but that was it.At the time, Einstein was working on his attempt to construct a unified field theory. The general idea of seeking such a theory was of course an excellent one, but the way he was going about the work clearly doomed it to failure. He didn't believe in quantum mechanics, and so his theory was purely classical. He didn't introduce elementary particles like the electron, hoping that they would somehow emerge from his equations. Also, he included only the electromagnetic and gravitational fields, omitting all the other forces of nature, such as the strong and weak interactions." "If he had been working on something that looked promising," Murray says, “that would have given me a perfectly legitimate reason to talk with him, and I would certainly have done so. But at that time, asking him about his life and his attitudes toward the world and toward physics was not something I felt comfortable doing. Nowadays, I would most likely not let such an opportunity go." And it is in this spirit that Edge is pleased to bring you a
conversation (and a streaming video clip) with Murray Gell-Mann — "something
about his life and his attitude toward the world and toward physics." |
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John Brockman, Editor and Publisher
Russell Weinberger, Associate Publisher contact: editor@edge.org Copyright © 2003 by Edge Foundation, Inc All Rights Reserved. |
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