Jonah Lehrer’s main argument in his article, “The Future of Science… Is Art?” is that science needs to start incorporating art into science in order to move forward in science. Scientists are very reluctant to the fact that they might need art in order to further their own research because the two shouldn’t in fact go together hand in hand. Science is based off of facts through scientific research and experiments. However, art is based off of emotion and feelings where the artist is trying to express something. This article has several examples of science incorporated into art which made those pieces huge successes. Lehrer is now trying to say that this process needs to be reversed so that scientists can make more discoveries and explanations of why things are the way they are. The only real example of art being incorporated into science was used by Niels Bohr when he was furthering his research in a new electron model.
Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle: The position and the velocity of an object cannot both be measured at the exact same time.
“The Bridging Principle”: Making connections through two different and separate things. This would explain the feeling of consciousness through the brain cells.
Reductionism: The practice of analyzing and describing a complex phenomenon in terms that are held to represent a simpler or more fundamental level.
Synapse: A junction between two nerve cells, consisting of a minute gab across which impulses pass by diffusion of a neurotransmitter.
Epiphenomenon: A secondary effect or byproduct that arises from but does not casually influence a process.
Holistic Perspective: Interested in engaging and developing the individual person as a whole.
Metaphor: A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.
Palpable: Intense as to seem most tangible.
Lepidopterist: A person who studies butterflies or moths.
The scientist I chose to write about is Niels Bohr because he was relatively the first scientist to incorporate art into science which was a huge success for himself and furthering his career. Niels Bohr was an award winning physicist and humanitarian whose research on the atomic model helped shaped research across the world. Niels Bohr plays a huge role in Lehrer’s article because without Niels Bohr introducing art into the science community, Lehrer would not have an argument at all and this paper would never exist.
The artist I chose to write about is Brian Greene. Brian Greene is a theoretical physicist, mathematician, and string theorist. Lehrer mentions Greene in his essay to show that scientists are slowly acknowledging the importance that art can have on science. Greene explains how art can be used to cause new ways of looking at science and new ways to accomplish there experiments by different techniques to answer the scientific question.
