De sleutel in een bewijs

dr. Bruce Draine
to think there shouldn't also be earthsize planets. The laws
of chemistry are universally obeyed. So the notion that life
may not be unique is certainly an intellectually exciting idea.
People want to explore with whatever tools they have to see
whether there is any indication of either other life, through
some sort of chemical tracers or conceivably intelligent life
broadcasting radio signals. To me those projects are all
natural things for homo sapiens to be doing. We're curious;
that is a distinguishing feature of humanity. And I hope we
will continue to be curious and not ever get into a situation
when we close our minds and decide that we know everything
that's worth knowing.’
And a little broader, why would we study astronomy
at all, things that are so far away?
‘If there is anybody writing history in 500 or 1000 years, I
hope they will look back at the 20th century as a remarkable
moment in the history of humanity, because it was a time
when there were such dramatic changes in our understanding
of a number of things. We suddenly discovered relativity, we
suddenly discovered quantum mechanics and we suddenly
discovered how large the universe is. Before that there was
just no concept of whether the universe is big or small, or at
least no way of addressing the question. In the 20th century we
understood that the universe has a size, it has an age, it has a
history. We don't understand every detail of this history, but
the Big Bang model is consistent with a tremendous number
of observational tests, any one of which could have destroyed
the model. It is really quite wonderful that we made these
discoveries and I hope that people will look back and say:
‘humanity made some terrible things happen in the 20th century, but there are also some things to be proud of as a
species’. Now I hope the 21st century will be the same, that we
will continue to make new discoveries. I am sure that there
will be progress in astrophysics; for example, we may figure
out what the dark matter is, and what “dark energy” is all
about. But there will also be progress in other areas, where
there are also some big unanswered questions. For example,
what is the “mind”? We all know we have brains, but what
is conciousness? We're not even sure what the question is,
maybe in the course of the 21st century somebody will
discover a new way to look at that. I like to speculate here.
Eureka!
When people look back in the 27th century, what are the kind
of things they might identify as the intellectual milestones of
the 21st century?’
What do you think of astronomy in the Netherlands?
‘The Netherlands have a beautiful history in astronomy,
being the place where telescopes were invented, if not first
exploited. Galileo managed to use them first for astronomy,
but the Dutch invented them. And despite the weather here
(Bruce directs at the window and the cloudy sky) they seem to
have a knack somehow for teasing the secrets out of the night
sky. They were also pioneers in the development of radio
astronomy. So I'm veryimpressed.’
How do you like Leiden?
‘I have been here before several times, for workshops, and
to give a department colloquium. I like it very much, it is a
very nice town, of course a great University and a great
department. As you probably know, the astronomy
department here is world-renowned. It is also very nice to
be here at the beginning of the mission of Herschel Space
Observatory (a 3.5m far-infrared telescope in space), because
it is just returning its first images. We have the excitement of
many people here actually being involved in the development
of the Herschel instrumentation. And of course I will
remember the Academy building where I gave the lecture. It
was a very beautiful room and Professor Paul van der Werf
played the organ. It was quite an ceremonial occasion and I'm
not accustomed to such ceremonies!’
OK, but Princeton is also quite old.
‘Yes, but certainly not as old as Leiden. And we're not as
observant of traditions as Leiden is. The style of the Oort
lecture, including a procession into the room at the beginning
of a lecture, was full of traditions.’
What about other differences between Leiden and
Princeton?
‘Our astronomy department at Princeton University is
considerably smaller than Leiden. We have only 12 faculty
members in astrophysics, but one of the benefits of being
small is that you have interaction with all of the other
Eureka! Universiteit Leiden 13