THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 29, 1995 TAG: 9510270731
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY LENORE HART
LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
PYTHAGORAS' TROUSERS< God, Physics and the Gender Wars
MARGARET WERTHEIM
Times Books. 279 pp. $23.
My junior year in high school, I decided to take physics instead of home economics. My guidance counselor told me that was impossible. Why? I asked. I already had biology and chemistry. I'm no math whiz, but. . .
It wasn't that, she assured me. ``All girls must take home ec, it's Florida law. But Mr. Fenner doesn't want girls in physics class. You understand.''
Unfortunately, I did. But in 1969, it didn't occur to me to call a lawyer.
Having been snubbed by physics, I felt keen interest in Pythagoras' Trousers, science writer Margaret Wertheim's history of the relationship between physics and religion. Her hypothesis: Since its conception in 600 B.C., physics has evolved as an inherently religious activity.
From Pythagoras to Stephen Hawking, it's been a science based on the idea of a divine mathematical creator. Today, physicists such as Hawking, Leon Lederman and Frank Tipler are scrambling to unite relativity and quantum mechanics in a ``theory of everything'' to lead us to ``the mind of God.'' Few of these scientists have a theological background. Wertheim notes it's a persuasive argument for research dollars, though: ``Give us the $10 billion .
She exposes the ``war'' between science and religion as a historical fiction invented in the 19th century. Most early physicists were clergy. Copernicus and Kepler saw physics as part of theology; Galileo longed to be endorsed by the pope; Newton carried out a lifelong God-quest.
Evidence shows early Christian theologians didn't trample the flame of scientific inquiry into a ``dark age''; science simply entered a period of stagnation. Its last great gasp, in A.D. 400, was the production of numerous texts on mathematics, astronomy and mechanics and the invention of scientific instruments (including a plane astrolabe) by a woman, Hypatia of Alexandria.
Physics' continued relationship with religion ensured that until recently women wanting to study electrons might as well dream of officiating at a Catholic Mass. Church-controlled colleges didn't admit women. Isaac Newton embodied the ``priestly'' scientist in a monastic climate; Francis Bacon, who shaped the ethos of modern science, wrote a misogynistic treatise called The New Atlantis.
Even Albert Einstein, whose cult image perpetuates physics as a divine calling, remarked: ``It is conceivable that nature may have created a sex without brains!''
But there were champions for women. Descartes challenged the Aristotelian view that females were mentally inferior, though he officially remained silent on the ``woman question.'' Diderot and Buffon encouraged women, and some, like Pierre Curie (husband of Marie), went to great lengths to support women.
Wertheim reveals women who sacrificed much - marriage, children, livelihood - to work in physics. Laura Bassi, home-educated in philosophy and Newtonian physics, became the world's first female professor (University of Bologna) in 1732.
The French Academy of Sciences never accepted Marie Curie as a member, though she won the Nobel Prize in 1903 and 1911. Around the same time Emmy Noether, a German mathematician, had to audit university classes for five years before she was permitted to enroll. She earned a doctorate and taught for almost 20 years without pay.
Wertheim makes a strong case for physics as a monastic men's club. But at times she makes disturbing gaps or jumps. For example, she notes that Lise Meitner worked in the lab with Otto Hahn during World War I, but doesn't mention Hahn's work on poison gas, or whether Meitner assisted in that ghastly enterprise. At times she fails to define technical terminology.
And most odd, though she quotes female historians and mentions writings by modern female scientists, there's no evidence she interviewed any contemporary women physicists.
Still, Pythagoras' Trousers is an admirable attempt to examine the effects of physics and faith on culture today. The good news is that things have changed. The bad news is: They haven't changed much. The physics brotherhood continues to exclude women from full participation. Though they comprise about half of the degrees in other sciences, in physics only 11 percent of doctorates and 3 percent of full professorships are held by women.
Wertheim doesn't claim an influx of women would turn physics into a perfect science, but merely balance it: ``. . . the best goals emerge from the dreams of men and women together.''
- MEMO: Lenore Hart, the author of ``Black River,'' lives on the Eastern Shore.
Her second novel, ``Ibo Key,'' is due out next year. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Religion's effect on physics ensured that until recently women, such
as physicist Marie Curie, were not welcomed in the exclusive world
of science.
by CNB