Word: holton
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...image, not the substance, of science that locks the door, Holton is convinced, and he puts much of the blame on science teaching. "It is hard for people to find out that scientists are human because they teach only the public science, not the private kind of science that they spend their lives thinking about. We expect students to wrap themselves around a core of, say, physics like ivy around a tree. That's all right if students are already committed, but otherwise it won't work -- they're the wrong kind...
...Holton's vision of his own "private science" has often led him far away from the five-man research unit on the structure of liquids which he heads in the Physics Department. It has led him into liberal politics; he stumped last summer for Thomas Boylston Adams, Massachusetts peace candidate for the U.S. Senate. For seven years, Holton edited Daedalus, the publication of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences which grew under his direction into a widely praised and read journal. He is vice-chairman of the Faculty Committee on General Education and guided the $4.5 million federal program...
...despite the range of this activity, Holton's "private science," his self-image as a physicist, is still pivotal for him. There is something about his field, Holton is certain, that demands this kind of activity. "There are many of us who realize that life is short and who want to do something relevant...
Physicists have historically been the most politically active group in science, and their recent voting patterns show that it is still true. Holton attributes this pattern to physics' natural link with philosophy. "Physics after a while stops standing on its own and starts asking the unanswerable questions -- what is time? what is space? Eventually a physicist has to start asking -- what can I know? what can I do? He has to look beyond his own science for the answers. More applied scientists can find immediate answers to their questions in their test tubes from...
...surprising that Holton divides his teaching time between straight history and philosophy of science. (He also holds an appointment in the History of Science Department and is chairman of the Committee on Physics and Chemistry, a small department which graduates proportionately more summas than any other in the college.) Holton's Harvard Ph.D. advisor and mentor, Nobel laureate P. W. Bridgman '04, made some of the same combinations. "He showed me that you can be both, that physics can be a basis for philosophy," Holton recalls. Holton's own field is an area of physics which has relatively fewer researchers...