which may be the most powerful thing I ever saw on television. Then we can talk.
Let me explain.
Jacob Bronowski was born this day in 1908, in Poland. He and his family moved to England when he was 12, and he arrived knowing almost no English, and yet by 1935 had both undergraduate and Ph. D. degrees in mathematics from Cambridge University. He was a serious mathematician, but had also been co-editor of a literary magazine, a serious chess player, would apply his mathematical skills on behalf of the British War Effort at the Coal Board, then to biology as did his good friend Leo Szilard, because he had served as an official British observer of the after-effects of the bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
He was a superb writer, clearly a by-product of his dual interest in literature as well as science. For many, including myself, they first became aware of him as the result of a British television series called The Ascent of Man, from which the clip with which I began comes.
I remember the series. And that clip is seared into my memory, because like Bronowski I am the product at least in part of Polish Jewry, although those in my family, being from Bialystok, were more likely to have been killed at Treblinka or Majdanek than at Auschwitz.
Yet the impact on me of that clip was about more than my Jewish heritage. It was about science and arrogance. Bronowski was a scientist, was friends with outstanding scientists, including some who like Szilard had wrestled with the moral questions of the impact of their science. Having himself served as co-director of the Salk Institute, Bronowski knew the good science could do. Having lived through two world wars he also understood the horrors of which mankind was possible - remember, he was an British observer of the aftermath of nuclear bombing.
He was a scientist, and he was a humanist. His words about the proper role of science seem remarkably applicable to our own day.
The entire series The Ascent of Man, even though it is more than a third of century old, are still worth watching. Here are the opening titles:
Here is another clip from the series, with Bronowski explaining the importance of physics, from the end of the 10th of the 13 episodes: As a Blake aficionado, I love how he uses that poet to end his commentary and tribute to physics, and as a musician I love how throughout the series he uses music as well as literature and science, woven together, to present what is for the series "A Personal View."
The series is so rich. Perhaps only look at the first few minutes of this clip, from episode 5, "The Music of the Spheres:
There are many videos from the series available on You Tube, which if you simply search for "The Ascent of Man" at the site will enable you to dip in and sample as you see fit.
Bronowski's success with this series inspired another scientist, and Carl Sagan gave us "Cosmos." That is one gift from Bronowski's work.
Bronowski made science at least partially understandable to non-scientists.
But for me, his most important role was to place science as an essential part of the human condition. Consider again the words from the clip with which I began, consider how applicable they are today, both because of those who fear science and those who would misuse science. So let me close as I began, with the powerful words of Jacob Bronowski, in honor of this, his 101st birthday:
It's said that science will dehumanize people and turn them into numbers. That's false, tragically false. Look for yourself. This is the concentration camp and crematorium at Auschwitz. This is where people were turned into numbers. Into this pond were flushed the ashes of some four million people. And that was not done by gas. It was done by arrogance, it was done by dogma, it was done by ignorance. When people believe that they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality, this is how they behave. This is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of gods.
Science is a very human form of knowledge. We are always at the brink of the known; we always feel forward for what is to be hoped. Every judgment in science stands on the edge of error and is personal. Science is a tribute to what we can know although we are fallible. In the end, the words were said by Oliver Cromwell: "I beseech you in the bowels of Christ: Think it possible you may be mistaken."
I owe it as a scientist to my friend Leo Szilard, I owe it as a human being to the many members of my family who died here, to stand here as a survivor and a witness. We have to cure ourselves of the itch for absolute knowledge and power. We have to close the distance between the push-button order and the human act. We have to touch people.
Peace.