| New
insights in developmental biology—our similarities to not only
chimpanzees and baboons, but to fruit flies and worms, the genomic revolution
and the invigorated emergence of neuroscience are all candidates for
unforgettable discoveries. They must be pursued with all the means at
our disposal. I would like to address a totally different one: the birth
of our universe.
Gino
Segre
Dear President
Bush:
We are
becoming increasingly aware of the connectedness and smallness of our
world. Our problems are global- we are all affected by what one area
or country does. Mid-western industrial pollution impacts on Washington
D.C. air quality; Antarctic ice melting causes flooding in Bangladesh
and Peruvian El Ninos can be traced to atmospheric pressure seesaws
between the Pacific and the Indian Oceans. The AIDs epidemic's ravages
know no boundaries. These realizations have changed the way we think
and must change the way we act. Finding ways to deal with these issues
and ones like them is a pressing scientific need as well as a political,
economic and moral one.
Parallel to these concerns, however, are topics that are pressing even
though they do not directly alter the quality of our everyday life.
Science deals with day-to-day matters, but it also challenges us to
leave the legacy of its discoveries to future generations. The Greeks
are remembered because of their findings in philosophy and geometry,
not because of territorial conquests. Copernicus' realization of the
Sun's centrality marks the Renaissance. We want to be remembered in
the centuries that come because of our own great achievements, ones
that our descendants will say changed the way they see the world.
New insights
in developmental biology—our similarities to not only chimpanzees
and baboons, but to fruit flies and worms, the genomic revolution and
the invigorated emergence of neuroscience are all candidates for unforgettable
discoveries. They must be pursued with all the means at our disposal.
I would like to address a totally different one: the birth of our universe.
A century
ago there was no scientific theory of the universe's origin. It has
been less than 40 years since we obtained the first evidence of radiation
in the creation's aftermath and only a decade since we established convincingly
that the universe was once a super-dense, ultra hot medium at essentially
one common temperature. I said "essentially" because there are small
deviations in that record; differences far less that a part per thousand
from point to point in the sky, but these provide the clue to all the
formations of galaxies, stars and planets that followed. This journey
back in time is the greatest archaeological expedition ever undertaken,
the uncovering of how our universe began and evolved. We almost have
the tools in hand for embarkation on this voyage and should not dawdle.
Through the past century's insights, we have come to realize that we
live on an ordinary planet circling a typical star of a mid-sized galaxy.
Perhaps there is one additional step—that our very universe is
not an anomaly in a continuum of space and time. We can leave a trace
greater than Copernicus did. Such discoveries, achieved by scientists
engaged in international collaborations and speaking the common language
of science may serve as a role model for a world in which national,
ethnic and religious barriers are broken down.
I believe
it is a pressing issue for the nation and the world to have dreams worthy
of the best it can achieve.
Sincerely
yours,
Gino Segre
Professor
of Physics and Astronomy
University of Pennsylvania
Author of A Matter of Degrees: What Temperature Reveals About The
Past And Future Of Our Species, Planet And Universe
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