My best interview with Philip Ball

Tyler and Philip discuss how well scientists have historically resisted power, the problematic pressures scientists feel in academia today, artificial wombs and the fertility crisis, the price of invisibility, the shocking nature of outer space and Gothic churches, the role Christianity has played. the Scientific Revolution, what current myths may stick forever, even if cells can be thought of as doing calculations, limitations The Gene of Selfishnesswhether the free energy system can be used with advantage, the problem of the accumulation of microplastics in the testicles and other places, progress in science, his favorite science fiction, how to follow in his footsteps, and more.

TYLER COWEN: Hello, everyone, and welcome back Interviews with Tyler. Today I will be talking to Philip Ball. I think of Philip this way. We had over 200 guests Interviews with Tylerand I think three of them, so far, have shown themselves to be able to answer any question I may throw at them in a plain manner. Philip, I believe, is the fourth. He is a scientist with degrees in chemistry and physics. He has written about 30 books on different sciences. Both he and I have lost.

He was an editor at The environment about 20 years. His books cover various topics such as chemistry, physics, history of exploration, social science, color, elements, water, water in China, Chartres Cathedral, music, and more. But most notably, he has a new book out this year, a great work called How Life Works: A User’s Guide to the New Biology. Philip, you are welcome.

PHILIP BALL: Thank you, Tyler. It’s great to be here.

COWEN: What is the situation in history where scientists have stood up most effectively to control, not to mention Jewish scientists, leaving Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union?

FOOTBALL: Gosh, now there’s a question to start with. When they successfully rose to power – this is a question I looked at in a book (it must be about 10 years old now) that looked at the response of German physicists during the Nazi era to that regime. I’m afraid my conclusion was, the answer was not at all impressive.

All in all, the scientists accepted what the government wanted them to do. Very few of them were very sympathetic to the Nazi party, but they did not protest. I’m afraid that looking at that as a case study, really, made me realize that it’s actually very difficult to find anywhere It’s a time in history when scientists are actively involved in opposing that kind of determination of some kind of ideology, or political power, or whatever. History does not give us a very encouraging view of that.

That said, I think it’s fair to say, science is doing better these days. I think there is a recognition that at the institutional level, science needs to be able to mobilize its resources when threatened in this way. I think we’re starting to see that, certainly, with climate change. Scientists have been criticized a great deal in that field. I think there is more institutional understanding of what to do with that. Scientists are not left to their own devices to better deal with those who can’t do it alone.

But I think there’s this attitude that still prevails within science, which is like, “We’re more than that.” This is what some of the German physicists, especially Werner Heisenberg, said during the Nazi regime, that science somehow works in a clean environment, and removes all the evil and dirt that goes on in the political arena.

I think that attitude is not completely gone, but I think requirements to walk. I think scientists need to get real, in fact, about the fact that they work within a social and political environment that they should be able to work with, and be able to – when the occasion demands – control, and not just be pushed around.

That, I think, is something that can only happen if there are institutional structures that allow it to happen, so that scientists are not left to their own devices and their individual moral sense to do something about it. I hope that science will do better in the future than in the past.

COWEN: What power structures do you think today’s scientists, say in the Anglo world, are most in favor of?