7 September 2019 | New Scientist | 31Pieces of brilliance
The machineries of empire can sometimes be
unnervingly beautiful, finds Chris BaraniukExhibition
Science City 1550 – 1800:
The Linbury Gallery
Science Museum, London
Opens 12 September 2019IF YOU were an aspiring
scientist or navigator in
16th-century London and
wanted a well-made folding
rule or astrolabe, you were
probably best off shopping
on the continent – that is,
until Elizabeth I and her advisers
came along. They decided that
London should produce its own
high-quality mathematical
instruments, in one of many
projects that helped establish
the English capital as a great
science centre.
A new gallery at London’s
Science Museum charts
scientific development in
the city from 1550 to 1800,
a period that saw it become
a world hub, says curator
Alexandra Rose. “Science wasreally an integral part of that
transformation,” she says.
These Elizabethan
mathematical instruments
aided architects and navigators,
says Rose. When a bridge at
Westminster was first built
in the mid-1700s, it was a
watchmaker, James Valoué, who
designed a pile-driving machine
that helped engineers span the
sludgy Thames. A contemporary
model of Valoué’s machine is
found in Science City 1550 –- Such models were once
used to explain the principles
of Newtonian mechanics to
audiences in the city.
The great London scientists
of the period are represented:
the exhibition features Isaac
Newton’s reflecting telescope,
on loan from the Royal Society,
as well as an ornate microscope
designed by Robert Hooke
that he used to make detailed
drawings of insects and plants.
But while London
craftspeople made some
beautiful tools, it would be a
mistake to think all scientific
instruments of the age were
so aesthetically pleasing.
Many pieces of equipment were
simply drawn on paper, cut out
and stuck to bits of wood.
“They obviously don’t survive
to the same extent,” says Rose.
“We have a few examples of
those, but they’re much rarer.”
Instrumentation proved
indispensable to the many
English traders and explorers
of the time. Aggressive imperial
ambition went hand in hand
with the development of science
and technology in London.
The imperialism has gone; the
city and the science remain. ❚
Robert Hooke used microscopes
of his own design in Royal
Society demonstrationsJENNIE HILLS/THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE SCIENCE MUSEUM“djinnium” as shorthand for
computational power prompt
much unnecessary flipping back
of pages, as does the coinage of
“metakalpa”, where the phrase “a
very long time” would do as well.
The book can suffer from an
unnecessary orientalism. The
djinns are given cod Islamic
names (Laplace’s demon becomes
djinn Ibn-La-Plaz), the samurai
are stoic warriors of superhuman
ability and the Buddhist monks
are as enigmatic as they are
profound. It’s all more Kung Fu
Panda than one might wish.
What Aguirre does remarkably
well is to find a way of threading
many of the most interesting
questions in theoretical physics
onto a single narrative chain.
Everything from the principles
of relativity to the diverse
interpretations of quantum
mechanics by way of entropy,
the anthropic principle and the
universe’s dramatic inflation soon
after the big bang are covered
succinctly and accessibly in the
course of a few hundred pages.
At its heart, the book does offer
a compelling answer to the
question of how to talk about
the un-talk-about-able.
Of course, other approaches are
available. Tim Radford’s recent
book, The Consolations of Physics,
shows the mileage in sideways
peeks at science through history
and culture. Then there is Carlo
Rovelli’s The Order of Time, in
which he attempts to harness the
power of poetry to the cause of
physics, and Helen Czerski’s Storm
in a Teacup, which revels in the
specific phenomena of daily life.
But Aguirre’s embrace of the
koan marks him out. Clearly, for
him, the greater the multiplicity
of paths – to lapse into the
koanesque – the nearer we may get
to some sort of enlightenment.
About physics, at least. ❚
Don’t miss
Watch
Anime’s Human
Machines at London’s
Barbican Centre will
explore Japanese
cinema’s love of
challenging cyborgs.
Tetsuo, The Iron Man
(pictured) is first up
on 12 September
at 6:30pm BST.Visit
Beazley Designs of the
Year at London’s Design
Museum reveals the
most innovative designs
in fashion, architecture,
digital, transport, product
and graphics. This year,
the general public has
helped with the selection.
From 11 September
until 9 February 2020.Read
Vast Expanses:
A history of the oceans
(Reaktion Books) by
Helen M. Rozwadowski
examines the ancient
and enduring connection
between humans and
oceans by exploring
different cultures around
the planet.
TETSUO, THE IRON MANChris Baraniuk is a freelance
science and technology journalist
based in Belfast, UK