Physics World this month has a nice article by Robert Crease on the strategies used in popular physics books, drawing on a study of popular books by Elizabeth Leane (Reading Popular Physics, much of which is available via Google Books). He talks about three different strategies that she identifies, and how they're employed in different fields. I was particularly amused by this:
Explaining quantum theory, for instance, seems both to require and to shipwreck metaphors — for what is “down there” just does not behave like what is “up here”. A common tool is to anthropomorphize, personifying elements of the quantum world. Certain books, such as George Gamow’s Mr Tompkins Explores the Atom, use such anthropomorphic metaphors guilelessly, trusting the reader to recognize the difference between what is literal and what is not. Others, especially the “new-age” accounts, tend to deliberately blur that difference for their own ends. These include [Gary] Zukav, who moves from a claim about the role of observation on atomic systems to the claim that “physics has become a branch of psychology”.
It's nice to know that talking to my dog fits right in with an existing tradition. And it's also worthwhile to have the shady games of quantum quacks called out.
I'm a little curious about whether this stuff is really specific to physics, or if other fields use similar techniques. Are these unique strategies required by the weirdness of modern physics, or are these same tools used to make, say, biochemistry accessible to the public?
I don't really have time to read anything weighty, but I may see if our library has this, or can get it.
- Log in to post comments
There was a comic series put out not too long ago that discussed evolution and Darwins ideas as a discussion between the mites in his beard as he went on walks near his house in his old age.
I think the comic was named after the area where he took his walks.
And there is the book about physics by Italo Calvino called Cosmicomics where he anthropomorphizes many scientific concepts and writes stories with them as characters.
Have you not read Flatland? Narrator A. Square goes to some trouble to explain how three-dimensional objects appear in his two-dimensional world. The point is to show the reader, by analogy, how four-dimensional objects would behave in the three-dimensional world we inhabit.
Also check out the work of Larry Gonick, author of a series of books called The Cartoon Guide to X. I own the books where X = physics and X = computer science. There are several others, not all of them on science/engineering topics. IIRC the physics book doesn't treat quantum at all: it's mostly mechanics and E&M, with one chapter on relativity ("Run! It's an escaped chapter from an advanced physics book!").
Do other fields abuse anthropomorphic metaphors?
"Selfish Gene" anyone?
School House Rock's "I'm Just a Bill" is still the gold standard for teaching legislative process. Also, it's not quite an anthropomorphism, but most economics classes discuss a world with two goods: beer and pizza.