Sheldon Glashow: Blind chance or intelligent design? The need for basic research. Lecture from “Blind chance or intelligent design? The need for basic research” at Visvesvaraya Technological University, India
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- 06.12.2007
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Supplimentary Materials
Chapter 1 of 13: The importance of curiosity
Sheldon Glashow describes his childhood interest in minerals, and he stresses how important it is that young science students continually ask questions. (4 minutes, 55 seconds)
Chapter 1 of 13: The importance of curiosity
Sheldon Glashow describes his childhood interest in minerals, and he stresses how important it is that young science students continually ask questions. (4 minutes, 55 seconds)
Chapter 2 of 13: The Scientific Method
Sheldon Glashow says that there are two approaches to scientific progress: Immanuel Kant's methodological approach to science, and accidental discoveries. (4 minutes, 46 seconds)
Chapter 3 of 13: Chance and Design
How a mixture of accidental discovery and Kantian reasoning uncovered infrared and ultraviolet radiation, and connected electricity to magnetism. (4 minutes, 46 seconds)
Chapter 4 of 13: The Elements of Chemistry
Sheldon Glashow outines the discoveries of atomic weights and chemical elements, and he describes the first breakthrough discoveries in the field of organic chemistry. (4 minutes, 46 seconds)
Chapter 5 of 13: Chance in Chemistry
The idea that organic chemicals could not possibly be created artificially in the laboratory was proved wrong purely by accident. Another accidental discovery created the first synthetic organic dye, mauve. (4 minutes, 46 seconds)
Chapter 6 of 13: Chemistry -- the Serendipitous Science
Teflon, Celluloid, Scotchguard, Rayon, Post-It notes and artificial sweetners — these commercially successful chemicals were all accidentally discovered. (4 minutes, 46 seconds)
Chapter 7 of 13: From Atoms to the Universe
Dimitri Mendeleev and the periodic table of the elements – and how we can now study the chemical compositions of the stars. (4 minutes, 46 seconds)
Chapter 8 of 13: More Examples of Serendipity
Measuring the atomic weight of nitrogen; the discovery of rare gases, the missing row in the periodic table; and one of the most famous accidental discoveries of them all, X-rays. (4 minutes, 46 seconds)
Chapter 9 of 13: Discovery of Radioactivity
Sheldon Glashow describes how Henri Becquerel's incorrect hypothesis about X-rays and a chance cloudy day led to his famous finding. (4 minutes, 46 seconds)
Chapter 10 of 13: Atomic Structure
A rational approach led to the discovery of the electron, while the derivation of the atomic structure was a different affair. (4 minutes, 46 seconds)
Chapter 11 of 13: Planets and Stars
Rutherford’s accidental discovery of the nucleus led to the planetary model of the atom. Sheldon Glashow also discusses the Kantian and serendipitous discoveries of the Indian Nobel Laureates Chandresekhar and Raman. (4 minutes, 46 seconds)
Chapter 12 of 13: The Birth of Nuclear Physics
The discovery of neutrons provided researchers with a tool to probe atoms and discover their constituents. (4 minutes, 46 seconds)
Chapter 13 of 13: Advances are Not Always Made in Advance
Chance and design must coexist: While reason may sometimes act as a judge and compel nature to answer well-posed questions, reason must also explore nature and then listen carefully to everything that nature has to say. (4 minutes, 22 seconds)
Description
Sheldon Glashow looks back into scientific history to show how science evolves through both carefully planned research and accidental findings.
