Visiting physicist gives advice to USU students
A physicist who loves poetry and art as much as he loves math and science described the differences and similarities between the two fields and told students to find something they are passionate about to hold onto. Alan Lightman, a physicist, novelist, essayist and educator, spoke Wednesday afternoon at the Kent Concert Hall for the ongoing events of Science Week. “Ever since I was a young boy, my passions have been equally divided between science and art,” Lightman said.”I have been fortunate enough to make a life both as a physicist and a novelist.” Lightman, a professor of humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the main difference between art and science is that science looks for the answers to questions, which bring order things, whereas in the arts, it’s the question itself that is important because definite answers do not exist in the arts. “We need both types of questions. We need questions with answers, and we need questions without answers,” Lightman said. “Both kinds of questions are part of being human.” Lightman said there was “substantial common ground” between the two fields.
“The physicist and the novelist both seek beauty, unity and balance.” he said. “Creativeness is a hallmark of great science and great art.”
The most common similarity between the science and the arts, Lightman said, is they both seek truth.
“For the novelist, truth in the world with the mind and the heart,” he said. “For the physicist, truth in the world through mass and force.”
He said in both fields, people have to be alone with a problem and lose all sense of time and ego.
“The scientists and the artists that I have known have at least one last thing in common,” Lightman said. “They do what they do because they love it and they could not imagine doing anything else.
“This compulsion is both a blessing and a burden,” he said. “It’s a blessing because the creative light is not given to all of us, and it’s a beautiful light, but it’s a burden because when the call comes, it can be unrelenting and can drown out the rest of life.”
To students here at the university and students at heart, Lightman said, “Find something you are passionate about. You may find it in a classroom, you may find it outside of a classroom, but find something that you love and are compelled to do.
“Find it and hold onto it, because only with a passion, you are truly alive.”
-cbg@cc.usu.edu