WRITING POETRY and the pursuit of theoretical physics are more similar than people imagine. Both seek to deliver innovative thought, but both must also work within the constraints of their craft, a Nobel Prize winning physicist has said.
Prof Steven Weinberg was speaking in Dublin in advance of a talk to be given at University College Dublin this evening entitled The Craft of Science and the Craft of Art.
In it Prof Weinberg will argue that creativity and innovation as applied to the arts has many similarities as applied in the sciences. He will also receive the James Joyce Prize given by UCD’s Literary and Historical Society.
“Because it is named after a great writer I thought I should give a talk on the arts and how the work I have done as a theoretical physicist throws some light on the process of creation and the arts,” he said yesterday.
Much scientific research is based on collecting the results of experiments, he said. “The work of a theoretical physicist is very much more like the way that a poet works.”
Both sit down with a blank page before them to be filled as they see fit. “Most of the things you think of don’t work,” said Prof Weinberg who shared the prize with Abdus Salam and Sheldon Glashow in 1979 for research into atomic forces.
“To make things work you have to obey various constraints which make your work difficult, but it is a difficulty that gives the work direction. In some sense our science has become a craft.”
Prof Weinberg’s lecture takes place today at 3pm in Theatre A, Science Lecture Block at University College Dublin. He will also participate in a debate on Wednesday evening at 7.30pm organised by Trinity College Dublin’s Historical Society. It takes place in the Graduate Memorial Building off the quadrangle.