News Release

Clinton to unveil science roadmap

Peer-Reviewed Publication

American Institute of Physics

In a major speech today at the California Institute of Technology, President Clinton is expected to unveil his science and technology initiatives. The new century's great innovations will undoubtedly be the result of what scientists have been doing for hundreds of years, asking questions about our world. The answers have surprised and amazed us, and led to products we never even imagined in our wildest dreams. The questions science asks today will likely have the same kinds of results.

In the 19th century British physicist Michael Faraday's discovery that a small electric current was produced by moving a magnet over a length of wire was simply interesting at first. William Gladstone, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, is said to have asked Faraday what was the practical worth of his latest demonstration. Unsure, Faraday reportedly replied, "one day, sir, you may tax it."

Similarly, just before 1900, the famous scientist Lord Kelvin (born William Thomson) wondered how to explain the amount of ultraviolet light that comes from red-hot objects. The answer eventually led to quantum theory, lasers, computers, intelligent drug design and more. If you had asked Kelvin to predict what the answer to his question would produce, he likely would have had very different results in mind.

Just as in the past, the questions science is asking today will forever change the way we live. To get an idea of where we are headed in the next century, Inside Science News Service asked prominent physicists what questions science is still trying to answer. While we may not be able to imagine many of the triumphs the answers may bring, even the possibilities are astounding.

Will scientists develop a single theory that can explain all of the physics in the universe, describing the origin of mass, how time began, and how it will end? This search for a unified theory is the search to finally understand our universe, and everything in it. Trying to develop a single framework for physics may sound like an academic exercise, but the process has already led to incredible advances in technology and society. In the 1860s, Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell developed a single theory showing how electricity and magnetism were connected, enabling scientists and engineers to understand these forces and develop such basic inventions as the television, radar and radio antennas. Twentieth-century inventions such as computers, microwave ovens, and wireless communications would not be possible without this feat of unification.

Nowadays, electromagnetism is unified with two other forces--the strong and the weak force--in a theory known as the standard model of particle physics. Together, they explain the physics of the very small, have led to the discovery of new particles, and enable us to understand how the sun shines and why some objects radioactively decay. But the standard model ignores gravity, the force we're most accustomed to in our daily lives. Gravity does more than explain how our feet stand on the ground--it shows how our planet remains in orbit and how galaxies stay together. Gravity is explained extremely well by Einstein's general theory of relativity. In short, general relativity describes the behavior of the very large--but ignores the realm of the small.

Trouble starts when general relativity and the standard model are combined to explain certain phenomena--such as black holes--which involve both large and small. The results sometimes make no sense. That means that something is missing--or wrong--with either or both theories. The hope is that a unified theory will explain all the known particles and forces, making many unexplained aspects of our universe (like the big bang) clear. But a unified theory may mean a revolutionary change in how we think about our universe--and increase how much we can ultimately control our surroundings.

Already, many proposed unified theories predict the existence of extra dimensions beyond those that we already perceive. It may sound out of this world, but physicists are, even now, designing experiments using particle accelerators which could potentially detect signs of these extra dimensions (if they exist). These experiments could actually take place in the early part of the 21st century.

Can we dramatically improve the way that we predict the behavior of complex systems? Is this the century when we will be able to predict earthquakes?

This is the search for what we are. Living organisms are extremely complex systems, with a huge numbers of strongly interacting parts. Physicists are asking whether the known laws of physics can fully describe how such complex organisms form, or whether completely new laws need to be developed.

The answer could not only explain the emergence of life but would help us get a much better grip on other complex systems, such as the Earth's weather, avalanches, and turbulence of air molecules that we experience during jet flights.

In the 1960s, MIT physicist Edward Lorenz made a breakthrough in the study of weather. Developing simple equations that incorporated relative humidity, barometric pressure, and other factors, he found that the course of the weather in his simulation varied dramatically for slightly different starting conditions, just as dropping a piece of paper from slightly different positions causes it to fall in a different way each time. Lorentz's work ushered in the science of chaos, which has since been found to occur in many other places, such as electrical circuits and electrical signals in the human body. Controlling chaos may help scientists better understand the weather, come up with new data encryption schemes for ensuring privacy, and treat epilepsy and certain heart disorders.

With the help of supercomputers, physicists can explore these and other complex phenomena in great detail, something not possible just 50 years ago. As Spencer Weart, a science historian at the American Institute of Physics points out, "computers have been opening up a new kind of physics which will surely continue to grow explosively... for solving basic problems like turbulence and the climate system, that despite huge efforts have stymied physicists for centuries."

Is this the century we build a conscious machine?

This is the search for who we are. This question has traditionally been tackled by philosophers, but that is changing, says Arun Holden of Leeds University in the December 1999 issue of Physics World Magazine. Because, Holden writes, "our sensory experience of the world around us is created by [electrical] activity within our heads." The ability to measure what has never before been observable allows physicists to start asking these questions. By analyzing the electrical activity in different parts of the brain, scientists hope to answer the question of what consciousness really is.

Can we interconnect our technology with the human brain?

This is the search for what we can become. The ability to hear better, see better, even think better -- scientists believe these abilities are all tied to our neural systems.

The 21st century will doubtless open possibilities for new artificial devices that could enhance the human brain along with sensory and nervous systems. "Already cochlear implants alleviate deafness by sending sound to the brain electrically," points out William Hartmann, a scientist who studies how sounds are processed by the brain and the central nervous system. "One can foresee a fusion of silicon technology and neurobiology that will permit the congenitally blind to see and the quadriplegic to exercise central control."

Experiences of the past have shown us how the answers to basic scientific questions can change our lives and bring up even more questions. Will we communicate or travel outside our solar system? What is beyond our universe? Will we create even more powerful medicines with no side effects? Will we be able to control the weather? What will be the next century's questions?

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For more information and other regional experts other than those listed below, contact:

Rory McGee
Inside Science News Service
College Park, MD
(301) 209-3088

Randy Atkins
Inside Science News Service
College Park, MD
(301) 209-3238

Experts available for comment:

Astronomy:

Anneila Sargent
Professor, Caltech
President-Elect, American Astronomical Society
Pasadena, CA
(818) 395-6622

Kip Thorne
Professor, Caltech
Pasadena, CA
(626) 395-4598

Virginia Trimble
UC Irvine
Irvine, CA
(949) 824-6948

Michael Turner
University of Chicago
Chicago, IL
(773) 702-7974

Dr. Andrea Dupree
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Cambridge, MA
(617) 495-7489

Physics:

Edward Lorenz
MIT
Cambridge, MA
(617) 253-4850

Nanotechnology:

Don Eigler
IBM
Almaden, CA
(408) 927-2172

Richard Smalley
Winner, 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Rice University
Houston, TX
(713) 527-4845

Harold Craighead
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY
(607) 255-8707


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