Science Never Ends: A New Paradigm Is Being Born in Biology: Does Science Have An End?

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Vicuña 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 267
SCIENCE NEVER ENDS:

A NEW PARADIGM IS BEING BORN IN BIOLOGY
RAFAEL VICUÑA
Does science have an end?
The spiraling advances in our knowledge of the natural world appear to

drive the paradox that sooner or later science will no longer have questions
left to answer. Distinguished thinkers thought that such a transcendental
moment had already arrived. Of note is the case of physicist Albert
Michelson, who in 1894, upon delivering the main address during the ded-
ication of the Ryerson Physical Laboratory at the University of Chicago,
declared that the more important fundamental laws and facts of physical
science had all been discovered. According to Michelson, future research
would be oriented towards the application of these principles and to per-
fect the precision of measurements. The same kind of assertion had been
foretold by the eminent Lord Kelvin. A few years following the predictions
of Michelson and Kelvin, the revolutionary theories of relativity and quan-
tum mechanics emerged and completely changed the outlook on how the
universe is viewed. Ironically, the experiments of Michelson relating to the
speed of light helped to inspire Einstein’s special theory of relativity.
In a book published in 1996, entitled The end of science,1 the author
John Horgan discusses the limits of knowledge with scholars from a broad
range of disciplines. Among the interviewees is Gunther Stent, who has
been one of the foremost proponents of ‘the end of science’. Born in 1924
in Germany, Gunther Stent settled fourteen years later in Chicago, where
he would later receive a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Illinois.
He was one of several physicists attracted to the biological sciences after
1
Horgan, J., The end of science. Broadway Books, New York, 1996.
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268 RAFAEL VICUÑA
reading the now classic work What is life 2 written by Erwin Schrödinger.
Gunther Stent, together with Max Delbrück, Leo Szilard, Francis Crick,
Rosalin Franklin and Maurice Wilkins, among others, left the scientific dis-
cipline in which they had been trained to tackle the mysteries of living
organisms. Stent was soon working along with Delbrück at the California
Institute of Technology. Both were members of the famous Phage Group,
which also included Salvador Luria, Alfred Hershey and James Watson.
Later, in 1952, he would establish himself at the University of California at
Berkeley, where he works until this day. There he founded the Department
of Molecular Biology, and later he entered the fields of neurobiology and
philosophy of science.
In 1969, Stent published The coming of the golden age: a view of the end
of progress,3 in which he develops the hypothesis that reality possesses lim-
its and therefore soon nothing important will remain to be discovered. He
utilized the fields of anatomy and geography as examples of scientific end-
points. According to Stent, chemistry had already reached its heights in the
30s when Linus Pauling demonstrated that every molecular interaction
could be understood in terms of quantum mechanics. For their part, physi-
cists had already described the physical universe, from the microcosmos of
quarks and electrons to the macrocosmos of planets, stars and galaxies.
Furthermore, a consensus had been reached in which the universe explod-
ed about 15 billion years ago and that all matter is governed by four forces:
gravity, electromagnetism and the weak and strong nuclear forces. The field
of biology would be left with only three fundamental problems to explore:
the origin of life on Earth, embryonic development and the processing of
information by the brain. According to Gunther Stent, students of the nerv-
ous system would form the avant-garde of biological research, with the
challenging perspective that the inability to even imagine any reasonable
molecular explanation for consciousness offers some hope that new laws of
physics might be revealed.
The remainder of the larger picture in the biological sciences had been
clarified with the publication of the Origin of the species by means of natu-
ral selection by Darwin, the resolution of the DNA structure by Watson and
Crick and the deciphering of the genetic code. These latter two discoveries
2
Schrödinger, E., What is life? The physical aspect of the living cell. Cambridge,
Cambridge University Press, 1944.
3
Stent, G.S., The coming of the golden age: a view of the end of progress. The Natural
History Press, Garden City, New York, 1969.
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SCIENCE NEVER ENDS: A NEW PARADIGM IS BEING BORN IN BIOLOGY 269
seemed not to have left room for new advances in the field of molecular
biology, a premise which would lead Stent to publish in the journal Science
in the year 1968 a provocative article entitled: ‘That was the molecular biol-
ogy that was’.4 In the first paragraph of this article, Stent declared ‘... the
approaching decline of molecular biology, only yesterday an avant-garde
but today definitely a workaday field’.
Gunther Stent was not alone in the twentieth century with this fatalis-
tic vision of science. Other protagonists included the physicist Leo
Kodanoff and the former president of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, Bentley Glass, who observed that ‘experiments of
increasing costs are designed to solve more and more irrelevant details’.
A journey through the central dogma of molecular biology
About 34 years after the publication of The coming of the golden age, we
could ask ourselves how accurate was Stent’s prediction related to the end
of molecular biology. The so-called central dogma of this discipline, enun-
ciated by Francis Crick in the 60s, seems a viable reference point for a quick
analysis on this matter. As it was written in its initial version, the dogma
maintained that the flow of genetic information always goes from DNA to
RNA and then to proteins. It also established that both DNA and RNA have
capacity to replicate themselves.
Subsequent studies on the replication of the DNA confirmed what
Watson and Crick predicted in their classic publication in the journal
Nature in 1953:5 ‘It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we
have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for
the genetic material’. Although there has since been no discovery that could
be classified as revolutionary in the field of DNA replication, the synthesis
of this fundamental polymer has demonstrated to be extraordinarily more
complex than initially imagined. In the bacterium Escherichia coli, for
example, more than 50 proteins contribute to this process, including five
enzymes (DNA polymerases) with the capacity to catalyze the synthesis of
DNA. The most prominent of these, DNA polymerase III holoenzyme, is in
charge of copying the bacterial chromosome in anticipation of cellular divi-
sion, a task performed at the astounding speed of 700 nucleotides per sec-
ond. The discovery of topoisomerases, enzymes that solve the problem of
4
Stent, G.S., Science 160, 390-395, 1968.
5
Watson, J. and Crick, F., Nature 171, 737-738, 1953.
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270 RAFAEL VICUÑA
the advancing DNA replication fork through two strands that are coiled
around each other, also constitutes a conceptual novelty difficult to predict
in the early 50s. In this respect, there are still important aspects to solve,
particularly the mechanisms that regulate the process in higher cells.
In 1970, Howard Temin and David Baltimore demonstrated independ-
ently that the flow of information from DNA to RNA was not strictly unidi-
rectional, as some viruses have an enzyme called reverse transcriptase that
is able to copy DNA using RNA as template. These viruses, known as retro-
viruses, are of great importance to human health as they are responsible for
AIDS and certain cancers. Both investigators received the Nobel prize in
Medicine in 1975 for this discovery. Another enzyme possessing this reverse
action is telomerase, which is of major importance in the synthesis of chro-
mosomal ends and whose action is altered in cancer cells.
The central dogma also failed to predict two unexpected transforma-
tions which messenger RNA (mRNA) undergoes before the encoded
information is translated into proteins. These alterations consist of the
removal of multiple sections of internal sequences or introns, a phenom-
enon known as splicing, and in the chemical modification of the mRNA
in a process called editing, which alters the information originally encod-
ed by the DNA template. Both modifications to the mRNA, while not con-
tradicting the dogma, certainly shake it in its foundations, to say the least.
Today we are still baffled by the existence of splicing and editing, as it
would seem a more efficient use of cellular energy if evolution had cho-
sen to directly alter the chromosomal DNA instead of the mRNA. More
recently, the phenomenon of trans-splicing has been uncovered. It con-
sists of a covalent union of mRNA fragments originating from both DNA
strands, extending the initial concept still further that a gene is a contin-
uous segment of genetic information.6
But still, this is not the complete story. Studies on RNA splicing mech-
anisms lead in 1982 to the surprising discovery that some introns have the
capacity to excise themselves without the participation of enzymes. This
catalytic activity of introns was later found in several RNAs that participate
in diverse pathways of cellular metabolism. Typical examples of these now
called ribozymes are the RNAs catalyzing peptide linking during protein
synthesis and those which are responsible for the processing of transfer
RNA (tRNA) precursors. It was for their work in this field that Thomas
6
Labrador, M., Mongelard, F., Plata-Rengifo, P., Baxter, E.M., Corces, V.G. and
Gerasimova, T.I. Nature 409, 1000, 2001.
20.Vicuña 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 271
Cech and Sidney Altman were awarded with the Nobel prize in Chemistry
in 1989. In recent years investigators have selected synthetic RNAs of such
catalytic versatility, that the hypothesis that ribozymes must have played a
fundamental role in the first evolutionary stages of the life on Earth has
been given a strong fortification. Examples of ribozyme activities generat-
ed in the laboratory by random sequence selection include phosphodiester
cleavage, RNA ligation, RNA phosphorylation, RNA aminoacylation, pep-
tide bond formation, glycosidic bond formation, RNA alkylation and cyclic
phosphate hydrolysis, among others.7 It has further been demonstrated that
under specific conditions, RNA has the ability to catalyse the synthesis of
its own nucleotides and moreover to replicate itself.8 This in vitro selection
of specific ribozyme activities is of such effectiveness that it has been used
in the selection of deoxyribozymes. That is to say, the traditionally inert
DNA molecule can also be compelled to perform a surprising variety of
chemical reactions, such as RNA transesterification, DNA cleavage, DNA
ligation, DNA phosphorylation and porphyrin methylation.9
The flow of information from RNA to proteins has also been a source
of interesting surprises with respect to the central dogma. When the genet-
ic code was solved in 60s, the attention was immediately drawn to the
observation that this code was universal. All organisms in nature seemed to
use the same language to store and transmit genetic information. In the
course of the following years, it was discovered that several organisms fell
outside this norm, particularly in their expression of the message contained
in minute cytoplasmic organelles called mitochondria.
Additional findings substantially extending our perspective on the cen-
tral dogma, relate to unexpected properties of some proteins. For example,
certain proteins from bacteria and yeast have the capacity to remove inter-
nal fragments from themselves in an autocatalytic manner. The intervening
polypeptide (intein) is precisely excised from the precursor protein and the
flanking polypeptides (exteins) are ligated to form the mature protein.10 The
biological meaning of this splicing of proteins is still unknown, although
most inteins harbor homing endonucleases which turn inteins into infec-
tious elements by mediating horizontal transfer of the intein coding
7
For a review, see Bartel, D.P. and Unrau, P.J., Trends Biochem. Sci. 9, M9-M13, 1999.
8
Johnston, W.K. et al, Science 292, 1319-1325, 2001.
9
Li, Y. and Breaker, R.R., Curr. Op. Struct. Biol. 9, 315-323, 1999; Breaker, R.R.,
Science 290, 2095-2096, 2000.
10
Paulus, H., Ann. Rev. Biochem. 69, 447-496, 2000.
20.Vicuña 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 272
272 RAFAEL VICUÑA
sequence. Prions are also a good example of a novel concept within the
dogma. These protein agents, which affect the mammalian nervous system
leading to diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob, kuru and scrapie, can cause
a non-physiological modification of other proteins seemingly without the
need for genetic material.11
The Functional Genome
It is quite possible that if Gunther Stent had known that after the pub-
lication of his work there would appear exceptions to the universality of
the genetic code, splicing and editing of the RNA, the reverse transcrip-
tion of RNA, the splicing of proteins, the presence of catalytic DNA and
RNA, etc., he may have abstained in 1968 of his prediction about ‘the
approaching decline of molecular biology’. And yet, it is highly likely that
molecular biology has yet to reveal many of its greatest and surprising
secrets, upon the unfolding of functional genomics. This novel field stud-
ies the organization of the genes, the mechanisms that control their
expression and the interactions that are established among them to make
up the physiology of an organism.
The fundamental discovery of Watson and Crick took center stage
only one year after Martha Chase and Alfred Hershey, based on the obser-
vations of Oswald Avery, confirmed that DNA was the genetic material.
Doubt no longer existed that this polymer was the structural key to the
development and organization of living organisms. Then, it was assumed
that a simple relationship between phenotype and genotype would allow
an interpretation at the genetic level for every characteristic exhibited by
living organisms. Possibly, this somewhat straightforward and ingenuous
vision of the problem was influenced by the extreme reductionism cham-
pioned by Francis Crick.
Later investigations, nevertheless, demonstrated that the genome is
considerable more complex and that multiple factors influence pheno-
types. An initial source of astonishment came from the observation that
the amount of DNA contained within a genome and the place of organ-
isms in the evolutionary scale do not follow a linear relationship. Thus,
for example, many plants have more DNA than mammals, and still more
surprising, the amoeba, a very small unicellular organism, has 200 times
more DNA than Homo sapiens. This phenomenon is referred to as the C
11
Prusiner, S.B., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 95, 13363-83, 1998.
20.Vicuña 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 273
value paradox. Although today we correlate this phenomenon with the

fact that only a fraction of the genome has a coherent message (around a
1.3% in the man and a still smaller percentage in plants), the function of
the non-coding DNA is for the most part unknown. For whatever reason,
this portion of the genome must be essential, as its maintenance requires
high energy consumption.
The Human Genome Project has brought new surprises that have come
to defy the basis of genetic determinism, i.e. the traditionally sustained
belief of the existence of simple causality between phenotype and genotype.
As it is commonly known, this project anticipates reading (sequencing) of
the genome in its totality, the elucidation of the genes encoded and their
corresponding chromosomal locations (genetic map). The Human Genome
Project also incorporates the study of genomes from other organisms, with
the purpose of making comparative analyses among them.
Without a doubt, the most remarkable discovery that has been con-
tributed by the Human Genome Project was not only the confirmation that
there is no simple correspondence between the degree of morphologic com-
plexity and DNA content, but neither is there a correlation between this
physical property with the number of genes in the different organisms.
Thus, one sees that solely within the group of the bacteria, the number of
genes ranges from 473 (Mycoplasma genitalum) to nearly 8,000
(Myxococcus xanthus). Among them, the Escherichia coli bacterium, wide-
ly used in laboratory experiments, has a genome made up of about 4,500
genes. The yeast Saccharomyces cereviciae, also unicellular, possesses 6,034
genes. Since the latter is larger and possesses a more elaborate structure
than bacteria, a greater difference in the number of genes had been expect-
ed. Among the metazoans (multicellular beings), the fruitfly Drosophila
melanogaster appears with 13,061 genes, whereas the roundworm
Caenorabditis elegans, that measures a millimeter in length and displays a
more basic morphology, has 19,099 genes. Furthermore, Arabidopsis
thaliana, a cress plant whose genetic simplicity makes it a useful model for
laboratory studies, has a genome of 25,500 genes.
How many genes should be expected for the human species? Until a few
years ago an estimate near 100,000 was postulated, although some experts
elevated this number as far as 165,000. Then, in February of 2001, data
published in Nature by the Human Genome Project consortium,12 as well
12
International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium, Nature 409, 860-921, 2001.
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274 RAFAEL VICUÑA
as that published in Science magazine by the biotech company Celera,13

threw out an unexpectedly low number. The genome of the human species
seems to have about 30,000 genes, little more than the cress A. thaliana and
only 50% more than C. elegans worm. Other genomes whose study has not
yet been concluded, such as those of the mouse and the chimpanzee, are
expected to contain a gene number very similar to that of our own.
But it is not merely the low gene number that draws our attention.
Something equally unexpected is that the genomes of the yeast, the fruitfly
and the worm share 46, 61 and 43 percent similarity with the human
genome. These observations raise fundamental questions. How is it that
this low number of genes contains all the information required by a com-
plex organism such as man? How do we explain that genomes sharing such
a high degree of homology can give rise to such different organisms?
We do not have answers to these questions yet. The observation that
more than a third of the human genes can undergo remodeling leading to
the production of several functionally distinct proteins from each gene –
a phenomenon called alternative splicing – does not appear to be a suffi-
cient explanation. The DSCAM gene of the fruitfly Drosophila, which is
involved in nervous system development, could theoretically give rise to
38,000 proteins by means of this alternative splicing. Therefore, it is clear
that we must change our traditional vision of the genome and analyze its
behavior like that of a complex system whose final product is superior to
the mere sum of its parts. In other words, it is becoming more and more
evident that although the number of genes are a determining factor in the
phenotype of an organism, of equal importance are the inter-genetic
interactions (epistasis), as well as the influence in gene expression exert-
ed by the environment.
Thus, rather than saying that we have identified the gene for obesity,
the gene responsible for cognitive abilities or the gene responsible for
Alzheimer’s disease, it would be more accurate to state that these genes
are involved in the expression of these characteristics. In reality, the phe-
notype of each individual is dependent both on the properties of the
genome as a whole and upon the interaction with the environment. This
explains why the same mutation in a particular gene can give rise to dis-
similar effects in different individuals, including failing to be expressed.
Although this phenomenon is less frequent in characteristics arising from
13
Venter, J.C. et al, Science 291, 1304-1351, 2001.
20.Vicuña 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 275
a single gene, it is certainly evident in the case of characteristics of multi-

genetic origin. A textbook example of this latter point is observed with the
gene associated with increased risk of mammary and ovarian cancer,
BRCA1. When both alleles of BRCA1, that is to say, when the genes
derived from the father and the mother are mutated, the risk of contract-
ing cancer is not greater than if only one allele is present. It is as a result
of situations such as this one that geneticists have coined the concepts of
penetrance and genetic expressivity, to mean, respectively, the proportion
of individuals with a specific genotype that is manifested as a phenotype
and the degree to which this expression occurs.
In relation to the previous example, it is possible to deduce that
although certain risks can be affected by alterations in a single gene, it does
not necessarily imply that altering the dose of this gene by means of genet-
ic manipulation is necessarily going to harness the expression of this char-
acteristic in beneficial and harmonic form. This is perhaps the most impor-
tant challenge that faces gene therapy, the practice that was initiated over
two decades ago as a promising alternative to alleviate the monogenetic dis-
eases. To complicate matters still further, it has been known for some time
that mutations of genes whose alteration simultaneously affects multiple
functions does not always shed light on relationship among these func-
tions. The existence of these genes, referred to as pleiotrophic, constitute
further evidence as to why genome related studies must be approached in
both a systematic and open-minded manner.
Research in microorganisms has demonstrated this apparent lack of
direct correspondence between genotype and phenotype. Comparative
analyses of genomes of microorganisms that live at high temperatures,
have not explained the genetic bases of thermostability. Equally puzzling is
the failure to elucidate the genes responsible for the remarkable resistance
exhibited by the bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans to radiation. Recent
investigations on minimal genomes using the knockout approach have
brought to light unanticipated findings in this issue. This technology
involves introducing mutations that disable a gene in order to examine the
consequences on the viability of the organism. Observations in yeast, for
example, show that of the 6,034 genes already mentioned only about 1,000
are essential for survival. It is assumed that functional redundancy occurs,
in which similar genes (paralogues) can assume the tasks of the deleted
ones. Statistical extrapolations of these works throw out a number of 300
genes which are absolutely essential to sustain life. In metazoans, knockout
technology has also demonstrated some highly unexpected results, an
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276 RAFAEL VICUÑA
example being that the deletion of both oestrogen receptors still allows the
birth of a healthy, although sterile, individual.
The concept of genomic plasticity had already been applied to the dis-
cipline of evolutionary genetics, accounting for the observation that certain
morphologic characters remain unchanged in spite of a substantial genetic
variability. These characteristics have been named canalized characters,
since their manifestation stays within narrow limits in spite of stimuli hav-
ing the potential to disturb them. A classic example is demonstrated by
HOX gene clusters, which define the vertebrate body plan. All vertebrates,
from sharks to man, have a similar body plan brought about by the pres-
ence of four HOX clusters. The bony fish have undergone a genome dupli-
cation of these gene clusters and now possess seven HOX clusters, yet still
maintaining the same body plan. Further studies in this field have demon-
strated that distant organisms in the evolutionary scale have very similar
genes (orthologues) which possess completely different functions. One of
the notable examples on the matter is the otx gene, which in the vertebrate
lineage participates in head formation, whereas in the aquatic coelenterate
Hydra this gene is associated with movement. In the same vein, genes that
code for the eye crystal proteins have orthologues involved in responses to
thermal shock and other stimuli that induce cellular stress.
Science has no end
The biologist Adam Wilkins, after examining the influence of Mendel,

Darwin and Watson-Crick, suggested that in biology a Kuhnian style revo-
lution which entails a new paradigm replacing a still effective one, has not
occurred.14 Strictly speaking, contends Wilkins, none of the seminal contri-
butions of these prominent scientists constituted a new theory that substi-
tuted an existing one, as what really existed previously in each case was
simply ignorance. In accordance with this, Richard Strohman maintains
that a true revolution is currently taking place, where the existing tradi-
tional genetic determinism is being supplanted by a more systematic
approach to genetics. The prevailing paradigm of the last several decades,
reinforced by the reductionism of some leading scientists, found support in
the statement: DNA to RNA to protein to phenotype. This axiom continues
in its validity, declares Strohman, solely for those characteristics that are
14
Wilkins, A.S., BioEssays 18, 695-696, 1996.
20.Vicuña 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 277
encoded by a single gene. But the vast majority of the cellular functions
depend on the interaction of several genes, which are also influenced by the
environment. It is for this very reason that it is easier to predict the appear-
ance of a monogenetic disease (haemophilia, serious immunodeficiency,
hypercholesterolemia) than those of a multifactorial origin (schizophrenia,
Alzheimer’s disease). According to Strohman, the new paradigm that is
being heralded is that of epigenetics, the discipline that incorporates the
study of mechanisms that impart spatial and temporal control of gene
expression in the development from the zygote to the adult stage of com-
plex organisms.15,16 In this complex epigenetic network it is implied that
once synthesized, proteins can establish a series of interactions using
guidelines not originally encoded in the DNA. To phrase this another way,
the network of interactions between the genes that is established by the
proteins they encode, in conjunction with the influences of environmental
factors on these interactions, constitute an epigenetic adaptive system that
is complex and incompatible with the marked determinism that prevailed
in the last century.
It will not be long before the views of Richard Strohman are verified.
Either way, it seems clear that the application of a reductionistic logic in
science can lead to false interpretations by limiting the confines of what
remains to be explored. We must consider that biological systems are com-
plex and experience demonstrates that as knowledge progresses new sce-
narios appear that could not have been foreseen with the previously avail-
able information. Scientific research always leads to new questions. For
this reason, molecular biology, far from having found its limits proposed by
Stent, is more vigorous than ever and most likely it is about to give birth to
a new paradigm that will revolutionize the biological sciences.
15
Strohman, R., Bio/Technology 12, 156-164, 1994.
16
Strohman, R., Nature Biotechnology 15, 194-200, 1997.
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DISCUSSION ON THE PAPER BY VICUÑA
CABIBBO: A great question is: will biology continue? Will physics contin-
ue? Who knows?
RAO: I think other than biology, there are a lot of other sciences, so let
me say something. It’s foolish of people to say that chemistry ended with
the Dirac equation; Dirac himself said that, and that is unfortunate. And
of course people say that Linus Pauling created modern chemistry when
he put two dots and said there is a chemical bond.
CABIBBO: Nanotubes, etc.
RAO: The real point in chemistry is not based on this premise. The fun-
damental premise that explaining a chemical bond is not the end of
chemistry. It’s a wrong assumption: statements about the end of science,
the end of the world, etc., are generally misplaced.
CABIBBO: I tend to agree.
RAO: This seems to be wrong in all these cases.
CABIBBO: I tend to agree. In fact probably even geography still has a lot
of interesting aspects to be discovered.
VICUÑA: Well, at the begining of my talk I mentioned the book by Paul

Horgan. He interviewed many scholars in different fields. Supposedly, all of
them were more or less in favour of the end of science. But I heard this
morning from the previous speaker, Dr. Shea, that many of the interviewees
of Horgan in that book are not very pleased with the interpretation of their
statements made by this journalist. But there have been prestigeous scien-
tists in favour of the end of science. I didn’t mention for example Leo
20.Vicuña 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 279
DISCUSSION ON THE PAPER BY VICUÑA 279
Kodanoff and the former President of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, Bentley Glass, who also said things such as ‘exper-
iments of increasing cost are designed to solve more and more irrelevant
details’. As I said, he was President of AAAS. So, we have to be careful.
CABIBBO: Individual people may become tired of making experiments,

but there’ll be new people doing that.
21.White 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 280
THE UNIQUE AND GROWING

INFLUENCE OF THE NEUROSCIENCES
ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF OUR CULTURE
ROBERT J. WHITE
If we are to define and refine the cultural values of science in relation

to human existence, we must continue to gain a greater understanding of
the human mind and the brain. In the process, we must pause and once
again ask ourselves the deep fundamental question: Who are we? In
addressing this concept, we must take up the issue of: What are we? The
classical Christian response to these questions is, of course, ‘You are com-
posed of body and soul and made in the image and likeness of God’ in a
Thomistic sense, primary matter and substantial form.
Perhaps, in an attempt to analyze this state we might begin with the
physical body. Obviously, we can all describe the visual appearance of a
person utilizing our senses but since we cannot physically observe the
human soul the problem immediately arises as to where it is located, for
example, within or outside the body or diffused throughout the substance
of the entire soma.
What one would like to emphasize in the brief presentation above is
that in the framework of our culture and its evolution and future to come,
a single bodily entity, the human brain, has been totally responsible for all
of the accomplishments of mankind since time immemorial. What we are
saying is quite overwhelming for we are stating, categorically, that a living
substance weighing no more than 3.5 pounds has discovered, constructed
and learned all we know about the universe and ourselves. It is, then, the
repository of all human knowledge gained to date and is completely respon-
sible for all activities, be they good, bad or indifferent, of all generations in
the past, the present and the future. Many medical scientists believe that
21.White 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 281
THE UNIQUE AND GROWING INFLUENCE OF THE NEUROSCIENCES 281
the body itself represents nothing more than a power pack whose primary
responsibility is to keep the brain viable. The Central Nervous System’s
(CNS) other anatomical element, the spinal cord, is equipped with periph-
eral nerves as is the brain with its cranial nerves to conduct information to
this organ and to convey instructions from it to all systems of the body.
Thus, this cellular structure must provide for the assimilation and process-
ing of all this information from these sensory sources that often arrives
simultaneously requiring decision-making within milli-seconds.
One must apologize for this rather simplistic discussion of the human
nervous system that enjoys such cellular and molecular complexity and
architectural uniqueness. Think for a moment, of a musician playing the
piano and singing an aria from some classical repertoire. Just try to imag-
ine how many areas of both cerebral hemispheres must be involved to carry
out this performance. In spite of all the research conducted on music, and
the brain, we still have very little understanding as to how all of these func-
tions fit so beautifully together. Yes, the human brain is the most complex,
most incredible ‘object’ in the entire universe as we know it. Many would
be inclined to argue these extraordinary properties that brain tissue pro-
vides are anchored to its biochemical and physiological base, but still more
appropriately thought to be more ‘correctly’ identified with the mind.
Thus, is the mind just a sum of all the abilities and functions displayed
by the physical structure – the brain? Or, is it a special form that inherits
the brain but is not an organic part of it? All of these relationships are, obvi-
ously, important if not critical to our discussion of science and culture, for
in the final analysis it is the mind/brain consortium that produces, ampli-
fies, and modifies our culture in all of its dimensions.
What is being emphasized in this presentation is the simple axiom that
whatever culture is, or becomes, in all of its elements, the human
brain/mind is responsible. Thus, our appreciation of the universe in terms
of space, time, and energy, is extremely limited and, in time, even our pres-
ent concepts may be found to be totally incorrect. What is fascinating, is
that in spite of all the scientific efforts of such men as Fr. George Coyne,
with all their incredible telescopic equipment and computers, in the final
analysis, they (the cosmologists), as human beings, must gather and inter-
pret data defining what our universe really is. Once again, it is their
brain/mind interface that will accomplish this awesome task.
When we examine the many factors that encompass our civilization
and define our culture now, and in the future, the immediate issue arises:
Who is responsible for its design and development? Obviously, we, the
21.White 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 282
282 ROBERT J. WHITE
world’s population, are! It is imperative that we work to eliminate poverty

and increase the level of education in the world. As a result, this critical
responsibility and special attention must be focused on providing a scien-
tific education for the youth of all nations. Within this educational effort,
the discipline of neuroscience must be emphasized. Without the knowledge
and understanding of the human brain/mind consortium, the advance of
world culture and civilization could be severely compromised. As our
human population moves into the future, the Earth could potentially
become an inhospitable place with a severe shortage of resources such as
lack of water, fuel, food and/or land for living. Thus, our evolving civiliza-
tion and culture will be severely tested in the future requiring dramatic
advances in many fields of science. Not only will this require important
acquisitions of new knowledge, but the creation of technologies that
presently do not exist if mankind is to survive well into the future. With
birthrates in third world countries continuing to increase (although their
overall populations are now being modified by the AIDS infection epidem-
ic) and starvation, as well as the continuing overuse of the Earth’s resources
by the advanced countries, this will bring about serious limitations and will
require major alterations in how we will live in the future. As a conse-
quence, our civilization, and its associated culture, will demand over-
whelming changes in all aspects of life to accommodate the evolutionary
nature of our world as well as the universe. As has been emphasized over
and over again, the necessary achievements required to sustain the viabili-
ty of humanity are obviously through scientific advancement, which
involves the intense participation of the human mind/brain.
While we have stated this crucial concept before, it is simply not easy
to convince even the scientists themselves that this integrated relationship
between the physical brain and mind must, in the final analysis, be at the
very center of human existence as we know it. Everything we know, every-
thing we do, results from this extraordinary relationship. While all scien-
tific endeavors will continue to be essential to the formation of our culture
in all of its dimensions, it remains for the discipline of neuroscientists to
discover the origins of the ‘bonding’ of mind and brain and, in the process,
be able to characterize the unique functions of this organ. Some would
argue that in spite of outstanding research with subhuman primate mod-
els by Professor Singer, and others, our knowledge of the brain and mind
is still severely limited and fragmentary at best. Such seemingly simple
questions as: What is consciousness? What is memory? How and where is
cognitive activity taking place? These are just a few of the fascinating capa-
21.White 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 283
bilities of the human brain/mind. Yes, this is the most intricate and fore-
boding entity in the entire universe. Within its cellular/fiber architecture,
embedded in a watery gel, these absolutely unique properties exist and
perform. Yes, it is in this miniature organic edifice that all these activities
are taking place, often simultaneously. While many of these attributes of
the human brain are thought to be unique unto themselves, the basic neu-
rochemistry and physiology of the human brain appear to be essentially
similar to what has been documented in the mammalian brain of lower
animals. This is also true of the fundamental cellular structure and
arrangement. However, the size and weight of man’s brain favors the
human. Also, the number of brain cells (neurons) and their connections
(axons and dendrites) are markedly increased in the human brain repre-
sented by tissue impaction as seen on microscopic examination of CNS tis-
sue histology. Thus, with this incredible biological mechanism man con-
structs and destructs our civilization and our culture.
Yes, this simple thesis dramatically demonstrates the importance of
neuroscience, the scientific specialty charged with studying and explaining
the human nervous system. In the process, we must charge it with the
responsibility of not only discovering the loci of emotions, the regions for
cognitive performance (including storage of intelligence and decision-mak-
ing) and, of course, memory in all of its dimensions. This list of functions
of cerebral tissue represents only a small number of activities that this
organ is responsible for. One might ask at this point: Is there a cellular cen-
ter for good and evil thinking, free will, love and hate, and sin? If such phys-
ical representations for these activities do not exist in the human brain,
then, how do we appreciate and define beauty as supplied by a visual and
auditory input? In other words, how and where do our cerebral hemi-
spheres decide a piece of art, or music, in beautiful? There is literally no
aspect of our culture (in which there is always an advancing and changing
concept with multiple facets) that is not directly and totally produced and
influenced by the human brain. Thus, it is obvious how important neuro-
science, in the process of studying the brain, is to our developing culture.
Excitingly, there have been significant achievements in recent years in
an attempt to explain these incredible functions of man’s central nervous
system. Much of this advancement is related to the introduction of highly
sophisticated instruments that actually permit the neuroscientist to observe
and collate information during directed activities in the human cerebrum.
These specialized imaging machines known as Positron Emission
Tomography (PET) scans, and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
21.White 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 284
284 ROBERT J. WHITE
(fMRI) scans, generally provide recordings of changes in regional cerebral

blood flow as well as measurements of localized metabolic activity utiliz-
ing radioactive labeled chemicals such as molecular O2 and glucose that
are rapidly utilized by cerebral tissue during metabolic performance.
While these instruments have extremely important functions in neu-
romedicine, they continue to represent one of the most critical advance-
ments in neurotechnology for the investigation of the human brain in
terms of locating the basic cellular areas responsible for various functions.
For example, the location of such function such as movement, audiation
and vision have been anatomically defined for at least a century. Now, with
brain imaging studies the exact locations, often multiple, for these func-
tions can be precisely documented in the cerebral cortex. In a clinical
sense, brain imaging can now diagnose neurodegenerative conditions as
well as malignant changes on the basis of their energy status. Evidence is
also accumulating that psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and
depression, even violent behavior, present with lower metabolic activity in
certain areas of the brain. If you can identify a region in the human brain
where there are metabolic alterations occurring, for example associated
with violent behavior, then, with further refinements of this biotechnolo-
gy, we will be able to find the anatomical areas in the brain in which the
refinements of human performance (discussed previously) will be docu-
mented. Hopefully, as this neuroimaging technology carries forward,
ancillary studies in cognitive psychology, neurophysiology, neurochem-
istry, and computer simulation will assist in understanding how the phys-
ical areas of this organ actually perform. Having this neuro-information
available should, at long last, assist mankind in accepting how humanity
structures the elements of our society, and how it forms and defines our
culture bringing it literally into existence. All this knowledge of the brain
carries an additional factor in terms of effecting our culture and civiliza-
tion itself; which, in final analysis, could be a supremely crucial factor
both in a positive and negative way. We are discussing here an entirely new
field, that of neuroaugmentation. At present, this is best presented in two
ways: First, the neuropharmacology effect on the neurochemical format of
the brain that will result in subtle or even dramatic changes in cerebral
performance. In time, significant improvements in memory, cognition and
intelligence will be produced as a result of brain/mind functional chemical
enhancements. Second, through the intervention of brain surgery.
Obviously, the science of neuropharmacology has already provided hun-
dreds of mood altering drugs but, in time, with further research the surgi-
21.White 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 285
cal-neurological area will become very important. Its beginning can be

traced to the era of tissue ablative operations for pain and frontal loboto-
mies for intractable psychiatric disease. Now, we are rapidly reaching the
time when surgery/electronic control of brain function will be possible.
Already such diseases as Parkinsonism have their neurological symp-
toms decrease through a stimulation procedure via precise stereotaxically
placed electrode systems in the depth of the brain. There is growing evi-
dence that with further design of this already sophisticated equipment, sig-
nificant mental control of an individual would be possible. Thus, we must
be prepared to harness the mega contributions from neuroscience research
for the good of our evolving culture. At the same time, we must be extreme-
ly careful about permitting any chemical or surgical biotechnologies to
alter the fundamental nature of man. Neuroscience, as all sciences, must
continue to contribute to, as well as help shape, our culture, but always in
a positive and moral way.
21.White 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 286
DISCUSSION ON THE PAPER BY WHITE
PAVAN: I do agree entirely with the value and purpose of the brain, but
how does the brain operate in relation to culture? What are the mecha-
nisms, the main mechanisms by which culture is made? Could I say that
this is language, or are there other more important factors?
WHITE: Well, the difficulty is that in so many ways we have a great

understanding of how the brain functions physically, but even with the
superb presentation of Professor Singer today, I would say that much of
what we attempt to understand is still very difficult. Although it may be
true in the range of subhuman primates, when we ask how culture is
developed and conceived, as I said in my paper, we know that the brain is
the organ in which these tasks are performed, but how it works, how it
assembles the facts, and how they may change or modify, I think that a
great deal of that activity is still not appreciated. It can be appreciated, but
just as we saw, we’re talking about location, it doesn’t tell us how we do it.
For example, one thing we do not know is just exactly what happens if, for
example, you want to raise your arm. Where does that command come
from? Why was that done? Well, I think it’s the same way when you are
shaping, augmenting and changing what we call culture in all of its
aspects: we don’t know where it’s done in the brain yet.
CABIBBO: Well, if I may say something as a physicist, it might be that the

difference between a human and a chimpanzee is only a difference of quan-
tity. There are many examples in physics where a small difference in quan-
tity makes a fantastic difference in quality. Well, just to make one example,
the atomic bomb, you need a certain critical mass. If you have less than that,
you just have an inert piece of metal, if you have more it explodes. Another
example is given by phase transitions: at a certain temperature there is agi-
tation of atoms; if you heat water at 99 Celsius it is water, if it is at 100.0001
Celsius it becomes vapour. So, it’s clear that there is a phase transition, that
21.White 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 287
DISCUSSION ON THE PAPER BY WHITE 287
there’s a huge difference between man with his capacity for communication,
for formal thought, for storing in a communal database, I mean, because it’s
true that the brain has notions of a science, but there is not a single brain
which knows everything, each brain contains a little bit, it is a community
of science and writing, etc., which makes a big difference, and it might be
that at least certain people like you or like other scientists of the brain will
tell us whether there is a qualitative difference between the human brain and
other brains, I don’t know, different organisations etc., but even if there is no
such difference in organisation maybe a small, relatively small difference in
quantity is what is needed to make this jump. You can see that animals are
very close to communicating. People who have dogs or cats claim they com-
municate with their pets. Obviously the communication is very small. At a
certain point you start a chain reaction and culture begins.
WHITE: A chain reaction, yes. But the simple thing, as I mentioned, is

obviously that the size of the brain is in favour of man, and yet there are
larger brains, some of the larger animals do have brains that weigh more,
but it’s the impaction, it’s the number of neurons and the number of cells,
connections, and synaptic relationships that again favour the human
brain. The fascinating thing though, Professor, is that the same chemical
reactions, the same histology, the appearance of the brain under the
microscope, the same electrical phenomena that we see and we measure,
there’s nothing between these features in the human brain and what we
would see in a Rhesus monkey’s brain, and yet, as you point out, the dif-
ference between performance, understanding and accomplishment is
overwhelming. Like Professor Singer, I’ve spent years working with mon-
keys, and I can tell you they are incredible creatures, but I haven’t seen
any of them build a St. Peter’s yet! I went to a conference recently in
America where they were trying to put together a group of lawyers who
support legal rights for subhuman primates and remove them as proper-
ties under the law and they would become persons. One of the lawyers
who were opposing this, stood up and said, ‘Well, I don’t see any of them
here in the audience that are asking to have a lawyer.’ But you are right:
the similarities are absolutely fascinating. On the other hand, the brain is
such an incredible organ, yet how can you arrest the circulation of the
human brain for an hour at a very low temperature and have it be
rewarmed and retain the same intellectual capabilities and personality?
After all, we’ve stressed the fact that it doesn’t have redundancy, which it
does have, incidentally. It is just incredible; we have much to learn.
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 288
SCIENTIFIC CULTURE
AND THE TEN STATEMENTS OF JOHN PAUL II *
ANTONINO ZICHICHI
Introduction
From the very earliest days of his Pontificate, Karol Woytila has main-
tained a particular relationship with Science and its values. Just a few
days after his election, he opened the doors of the Church to Science, giv-
ing life to a continuing relationship with the international scientific com-
munity. This relationship has played an invaluable role in eradicating the
danger of a Nuclear Holocaust, and in confronting, through factual proj-
ects, the danger of an Environmental Holocaust in the undeclared war
between the planet’s North (the rich) and South (the poor). No better
guide exists for the scientific community in undertaking this task than the
Pope’s ten statements, which have given life to a Scientific Culture in
communion, not in conflict, with Faith.
The role of this pastoral work of the Pope is analysed in the context of
modern culture in which – up until the arrival of John Paul II – the domi-
nant part of atheist culture had raged, using popularisation of so-called sci-
ence as an effective weapon for achieving the transformation of streams of
falsehood into truth itself. Mystification of culture in the 20th century
became a powerful arm of the two atheist cultures, Nazism and Stalinism,
which had the common goal of outlawing Faith as Science’s number one
enemy. These two fearful cultures were deliberately blind to the fact that
Science was not born in atheism’s home, but in the heart of our Christian
* Original in Italian. English translation by Mrs Susan Biggin, edited by Mrs Jean
Engster-Montgomery and Eng. Claude Manoli.
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SCIENTIFIC CULTURE AND THE TEN STATEMENTS OF JOHN PAUL II 289
culture, with Galileo Galilei, as an act of Faith in He who made the world,
and that Science was (and is) a source of values that are in communion,
and not conflict, with Faith. It is these values that have been given a new
life with the Apostolate of John Paul II, whose ten statements sum up the
values of Science and its role within the culture of our time.
There are three chapters here. The first covers the ten statements fol-
lowed by a brief discussion. The second chapter is dedicated to the ninth
statement, which has special significance for this Symposium. John Paul II
in fact says that Science is born in the Immanent but brings man towards
the Transcendent. We shall see if this is true. The third chapter examines
the so-called popularisation of science and the issuing cultural falsehoods.
The conclusion gives a summary.
1. THE TEN STATEMENTS OF JOHN PAUL II
1.1. Error and Forgiveness – The First Statement
On the 30th March 1979, His Holiness John Paul II met with physicists
of Europe at the Vatican, to open the doors of the Church to Science, there-
by allowing the Catholic Culture to take back home what in truth are its
own treasures of the Galilean Scientific Culture. John Paul II says:
Whatever is born of an act of Love must never be punished. If mis-
understood, thus if it seems in error, this act of Love must be forgiv-
en. Indeed, when understood, this act of Love will enrich our Faith.
This statement of John Paul II follows the teaching of Sant’Agostino on
the preminent role of Love. In fact Sant’Agostino says: ‘Love and do what
you will’.1 The relevance of ‘Love’ is of major significance for Galilean
Science. At that time, no one understood that Science was born of an act of
Faith and Love towards Creation. It escaped everyone, then, that, studying
the material world, Galilei had uncovered the first footprints of the Creator
of all things visible and invisible. And yet it was these traces that he said he
wanted to seek, through an act of Faith in the Creator.
The Fundamental Laws of Nature enrich our Faith, but when they were
discovered, they were confused with a detail that seemed offensive to the
act of Faith: the fact that it is the Earth that moves, not the Sun. The three
levels of scientific credibility had not yet been discovered, and it was there-
1
‘Ama et fac quod vis’ (Epistolam Joannis ad Parthos, tractatus 7, sect. 8).
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 290
290 ANTONINO ZICHICHI
fore difficult to understand how and why this apparent offence was linked
to an act of Faith and Love towards Creation. This Act of Love enriched
Faith, giving it, in the Immanent, the foundations of logical rigour that no
one could have imagined possible, precisely because they were rooted in
the material component of our very own existence.
Galilei studied stones in order to discover the Logic of Creation. He
could have instead discovered chaos. Had Galilei not existed, we would
know nothing about the existence of the Fundamental Laws of Nature. So
two questions arise:
– what did Galilei know about the fact that the Fundamental Laws of
Nature had to exist?
– and on what foundations was he able to conceive that these Laws had
to be Universal and Immutable?
Imagining the existence of Universal and Immutable Fundamental
Laws does not involve acts of Reason and nothing else, but of Faith in the
Creator of the world.
Were it not for Galilean Science, we would not be able to say that
Fundamental Laws of Nature, Universal and Immutable, exist; nor that
these Laws lead to the unification of all the phenomena studied in the vis-
ible Universe, which appears to us with just four dimensions.
The Grand Unification brings with it the need for a Superworld, a sci-
entific reality with forty-three dimensions: eleven of the ‘boson’ type and
thirty-two of a ‘fermion’ nature.
We are beholding the most extraordinary conceptual synthesis of all
time. And, we repeat, man has arrived at this magnificent synthesis
through an act of Faith and Love towards Creation, born in the heart of
our culture, an act of Faith that, in the first statement of John Paul II,
receives its first and ultimate seal.
1.2. Science and Faith – The Second Statement
In 1979, John Paul II not only opened the doors of the Church to
Science, but placed Science on the same pedestal as the values of Faith, say-
ing: ‘Science and Faith are both gifts of God’.
And indeed, Science studies the Fundamental Laws that govern the
material structures of Creation. These laws could not exist if we were the
children of chaos. These laws are the proof that in the Immanent there
exists a rigorous Logic that is valid everywhere: from the heart of a pro-
ton to the edges of the Cosmos.
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 291
Among the innumerable forms of living matter, we are the only one that
has been granted the gift of knowing how to decipher the footprints left in
the Immanent by the Creator of all things visible and invisible.
It is this statement that led to a new alliance between John Paul II and
the broadest scientific community ever brought together in the world – the
WFS (World Federation of Scientists): ten thousand scientists from one
hundred and fifteen nations, who, as we shall see, met with the Pope at the
Erice Centre on the 8th May 1993.
1.3. Science and Technology – The Third Statement
We live in a culture that attributes to pure scientific research responsi-

bilities that belong in their entirety to Technology (use of Science).
It is not the dominant atheist culture that came to the defence of
Science against crimes it never committed (the arms race and irresponsible
industrialisation), but John Paul II.
And the third statement of John Paul II is the proof:
The use of Science is not anymore Science; this is why Technology
could either be beneficial or harmful to life’s values and human
dignity.
A clear distinction must be maintained between Science and the use of
Science (which is given the name Technology). The great scientific discov-
eries must be distinguished from technologies for warfare, from reckless
industrialisation, from genetic manipulation.
To succeed in deciphering what is written on a page of the Book opened
by Galilei has no connection whatsoever with the use that political and eco-
nomic aggression can make of that discovery.
By placing Science on the same pedestal as the values of Faith, John
Paul II gives Science the power to defend itself from attacks of the dominant
atheist culture, separating quite clearly Science (the study of the Logic of
Creation) and Technology (the use of Science, whether for good or for evil).
For the first time in the History of the so-called modern era, a clear
distinction is made between Science and Technology. This separation
confers an extraordinary cultural dignity on the great scientific discover-
ies, and allows them to be distinguished from technological applications,
from the violence wrought on the environment, from thoughtless indus-
trialisation, and from genetic manipulation used against life and against
the very dignity of this form of living matter, called man, made in the
image and likeness of the Creator.
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 292
1.4. Dangers of Technology and Scientific Truth – The Fourth Statement
In a message to the WFS, John Paul II says:

Man could perish from the effects of technology that he himself
develops, not from the truth that he discovers by means of scien-
tific research.
This fourth statement of the Pope allows the great scientific discoveries to
be distinguished from technology for warfare, from thoughtless industrial-
isation, from genetic manipulation. The effort made by John Paul II in
defence of Science – as distinct from its use – has led a large percentage of
the public finally to understand the radical difference that exists between
Science and Technology. The declarations of the Holy Father have also
encouraged scientists to speak out against the mystifications of the domi-
nant atheist culture.
This statement of John Paul II allows us to understand that Science can be
put to use for the common good, but that it can also be used for evil ends, and
that the choice between good and evil is not scientific but ethical and cultural.
The Pope’s earnest encouragement instilled in the scientific community
of one hundred and fifteen countries the desire to create the International
Committee ‘Science for Peace’, thereby bringing this community down from
its ivory towers to get to work against the dominant culture and its mystifi-
cations, through the publication in 1982, of the Erice Statement.
Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, an awareness had arisen in our com-
munity of scientists of the need to leave the ivory towers, in order to let the
wide public know about the profound difference that exists between ‘scien-
tific culture’ and ‘scientific popularisation’. Ten thousand scientists from
one hundred and fifteen nations signed the Erice Statement, specifically
since here, this time, the real and great Science was talking, in first person,
without mediators. This document was drawn up by three people: Kapitza,
Dirac 2 and the present author.
2
A note about Kapitza and Dirac. Pëtr Kapitza was the only scientist in the USSR to
have had the courage to say no to Stalin, who wanted him to direct the project for the most
devastating bomb ever conceived: the one based on nuclear fusion. In the USA, the pro-
posal of Oppenheimer was being discussed. He wanted to shut down the nuclear arms
race. This proposal led to him being investigated, as if he knew about Stalin’s decision. We
would do well to remember that the great Kapitza (discoverer of superfluidity) was
stripped of his title and reduced to living in hardship until the death of the greatest com-
munist criminal in History. Dirac (father of the equation that opened up to Science the
horizons of antimatter, never conceived by anyone before) worked on the project for the
free world’s first nuclear bomb, terrified that Hitler might arrive first.
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 293
1.5. Missiles and the Heart of Man – The Fifth Statement
To the scientists of Erice engaged in the study of how to overcome the

danger of a Nuclear Holocaust in the horrific conflict between the two
Superpowers (USA-USSR), John Paul II said:
As in the time of spears and swords, so today, in the missile age, to
kill, more than arms, is the heart of man.
This statement of John Paul II made a decisive contribution to the effort
undertaken by the largest East-West-North-South scientific community
that ever existed, to examine the foundations for a scientific-technological
agreement between the two Superpowers, designed to avoid the danger of
a Nuclear Holocaust issuing from the USA-USSR confrontation.
The joint effort of John Paul II and the scientists signatories of the Erice
Statement made a crucial contribution to the fall of the Berlin Wall,
upholding with concrete facts the validity of this Great Alliance between the
scientists of Erice and John Paul II.
1.6. Scientific Voluntariate – The Sixth Statement
With the danger of the Nuclear Holocaust overcome, the Holy Father
initiated another action within the great movement of scientists, engaged
for a long time in studying the danger of the Nuclear Holocaust, saying in
one of His messages to the WFS:
Voluntary Science is one of the noblest expressions of love for one’s
fellow men.
The aim of this great plan was to study the Planetary Emergencies. In
1993 the Pope came to Erice to meet with the WFS scientists represent-
ing 115 Nations. The presence at Erice of John Paul II on the 8th May
1993 crowned a series of meetings and initiatives whose roots lie in the
Papal Magister. For this extraordinary Pope has known how to open the
doors of the Church to Science, without ideological, political, or racial
distinction, and beyond any geographical barrier. In so doing, he has been
able to give new drive to the culture of our time such that, after endless
cultural mystification that threatened the very values of human dignity,
great scientific discoveries have managed to penetrate the heart of the
culture of our time – so-called modern, but in reality pre-Galilean and so
very dispossessed of the truth.
The Earth belongs to everyone: rich and poor, believers and non-
believers. A careful examination is needed of the vital features of this
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 294
satellite of the Sun, a study that leads to a use of Science with the aims of
peace, progress, and the defence of Nature. Do this, says the Pope, put-
ting into action another form – one of the most noble – of love for your
fellow man: the Scientific Voluntariate.
And so it was that the international scientific community, encouraged
by John Paul II, put into action the Scientific Voluntariate, carrying out in
a global collaboration (East-West-North-South) fifty-five pilot projects
whose results allowed the conclusion that it is possible – provided that
there is the political will – to face and resolve the Planetary Emergencies in
the new millennium, giving future generations the hope of a life of well-
being and brotherhood, in communion with all people of the Earth.
It should not be forgotten that the Earth is threatened by the danger
of an Environmental Holocaust in an undeclared and hidden war
between rich (North) and poor (South). John Paul II urges the scientists
of the WFS to commit themselves through the Scientific Voluntariate to
a study of the state of health of this space shuttle on which we have been
graced to have been born.
The third millennium has need of the fundamental values of our cul-
ture, which is based on Love, to create a new society where Brotherhood,
Charity, Forgiveness and Friendship among people triumph. This state-
ment of John Paul II forms the foundation stone on which the whole of
Humanity, in a Great Alliance between Science and Faith, can build the
Hope to defeat the danger of an Environmental Holocaust. The results
obtained from the pilot projects are the only material proof that the scien-
tific community has been able to give to the G8 governments to convince
them of the fact that, if there is political will, it is possible to defeat the
Planetary Emergencies.
1.7. The Use of Science for the Good of Humanity – The Seventh Statement
Were it not for political and economic violence, scientific discoveries

would find one single route for application: that whose goal is to improve
the quality of life and the defence of dignity for all creatures travelling on
this satellite of the Sun.
Science would continue to progress in deciphering the Book of
Nature, and neither the arms race nor irresponsible industrialisation
would exist. In a world in which a culture of Love, Brotherhood and
Solidarity triumphed, the use of Science would serve only good purposes,
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 295
and would correspond to a continuation of the Work of Creation. Indeed,

the seventh statement of the Holy Father says:
The use of Science for the good of humanity is a living testimony
of an extraordinary continuity and a constant unity with the work
of Creation.
The use of Science for the purpose of good has been the force behind
the study and research that have led the world to carry out pilot projects for
defeating the Planetary Emergencies. The seventh statement clearly shows
that it is vital for the struggle against the Planetary Emergencies to take a
firm place within modern culture.
1.8. Love and Frontiers – The Eighth Statement
In 1990, the Holy Father as a consequence of the meetings with the WFS
scientists, made an appeal, while in Aversa, to convince all, scientists and
non scientists, of the need to promote a Civilisation based on Love, saying:
Love conquers all, demolishes frontiers, shatters the barriers
between human beings. Love creates a new society.
1.9. The Transcendent and the Immanent – The Ninth Statement
The great appeal of our existence lies in the duality that characterises
all we do, moment by moment, day by day, during the course of our lives.
The two supporting columns of this duality are Science in the Immanent,
and Faith in the Transcendent. In a message to the WFS, the Pope says:
Science has its roots in the Immanent but leads man towards the
Transcendent.
This statement by John Paul II has been taken up most enthusiasti-
cally by one illustrious member of the WFS – Professor âerenkov – as
indeed by the entire international scientific community. Chapter 2 gives a
closer examination.
1.10. The Great Alliance Between Faith and Reason – The Tenth Statement
The tenth statement projects the necessary alliance for the culture of
the third millennium into the future. John Paul II in fact says:
The non-believers are thinkers; the believers are thinkers who pray;
together, believers and non-believers act in good faith to implement
the Great Alliance between Faith and Reason.
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 296
The future will be dominated by two factors. One is linked to our

Transcendental Sphere, and is Faith. The other is part of our existence in
the Immanent and makes increasing reference to the rigorous component
of our thought and our activity, and is Reason.
Within the Great Alliance between Faith and Reason lies a strong
source of hope, such that the world may see the defeat of those who show
contempt for Faith or Reason. Although of Islamic faith, Professor Abdus
Salam 3 loved the Pope. He was convinced that the world’s future had to be
built on a Great Alliance between Faith and Reason, and that Science
should have been taught from the world’s altars.
2. LET US SEE IF IT IS TRUE THAT ‘SCIENCE IS BORN IN THE IMMANENT BUT

BRINGS MAN TOWARDS THE TRANSCENDENT’
This chapter – as we have already noted – is dedicated to the ninth state-

ment of the Holy Father, who says:
Science has roots in the Immanent but brings man towards the
Transcendent.
Let us see if this is true.
2.1. Reason According to Believers and the Three Levels of Scientific Credibility
For believers, Reason is a God-given gift and has allowed us to discover:

– Language, from which collective and permanent memory is born,
thanks to Writing.
– Rigorous Logic, which has given rise to the great constructions of
Geometry, Arithmetic, Analysis, Algebra, Topology.
– Science (with its three levels), which allows the certainty that the
world is not ruled by chaos but rather by a rigorous Logic with laws that
are valid from the heart of a proton (a millionth of a billionth of a cen-
timetre) to the fringes of the Universe (a million billion billion kilometres).
3
A note about Professor Abdus Salam: Nobel Laureate for his exceptional contri-
bution to the understanding of the electro-weak forces, he dedicated his life to the young
Galilean talents of developing countries. He held John Paul II in the highest regard, and
considered the tenth statement to be a contribution of fundamental value to the culture
of our time.
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 297
– A Note on the Three Levels of Scientific Credibility:
First Level Second Level Third Level
Where there are Where it is not possible A one-off event.

experiments whose to intervene in order to
Example:
results can be reproduced reproduce a result.
Cosmic evolution
in the laboratory.
Example:
Example: Stellar evolution
Discovery of the
Fundamental Laws
All the levels should be formulated in a rigorous way, and there should
be no contradiction among them. An example of the link between the three
levels of scientific credibility: Cosmic Evolution must be formulated in a
rigorously mathematical way, and must be based on the discoveries of the
Fundamental Laws made at the first level.
No phenomena known in the Galilean sense (i.e. rigorously repro-
ducible) exist that cannot be explained as a consequence of the Logic of
Creation: this represents the greatest conquest of Reason in the Immanent.
This study, undertaken by Galilei just four centuries ago, leads us to
conceive of the existence of a reality even more exciting than the one we are
used to – a reality of extraordinary symmetry which we hinted at in Section
1.1, and to which the name Superworld has been given.
2.2. Reason According to Atheists
For the atheist culture, Reason is the outcome of Biological Evolution

of the Human Species. The Biological Evolution of the Human Species
(BEHS), however, lies below the third level of scientific credibility. It is far
from being comparable with Cosmic Evolution inasmuch as BEHS lacks
rigorous mathematical formulation and is not based on reproducible exper-
iments at the first level. If BEHS were Science at the first level, then the
equation of BEHS should exist that leads to the outcome of Reason. And
that is not all. There are innumerable forms of living matter. None of these,
however, has been able to discover Science, or rigorous Logic, or Collective
Memory. BEHS is unable to explain how it is that we are the only form of
living matter that has the faculty of Reason.
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 298
2.3. Atheism is Self-Contradictory
Atheism is a contradictory logical construction. In fact, it denies the

existence of the Transcendent.
If everything finds expression within the Immanent alone, then what
BEHS would have is true: Reason is born and dies in the Immanent Sphere
of our existence.
Since the greatest conquests of Reason are (as we have said) Language,
Logic and Science, then Mathematics (the rigorous form of Reason) should
be able to demonstrate that God does not exist, and Science should be able
to discover that God does not exist.
Mathematics has not demonstrated the Theorem of the Denial of God and
Science has not discovered the scientific proof of the non-existence of God.
If everything finds expression within the Immanent alone, how is it pos-
sible that there is no Theorem of the Denial of God, nor the scientific dis-
covery of the non-existence of God? Here is the contradictory nature of the
logical construction of Atheism.
2.4. The Transcendent Solves the Contradiction of Atheism
In the Logical Structure of the Believer, there exists the Transcendental

Sphere, and Reason is a gift of God.
God has given us this unique privilege that has allowed us the Three
Great Conquests. Logical Mathematics is not able to demonstrate the
Theorem of the Existence of God in that, if it could, God could be
Mathematics alone. God instead is everything. The same is true for Science.
If Science were to manage to discover God, then God would have to be just
Science. But instead, God is everything. It is the task of philosophical thought
to demonstrate that God exists through the Transcendental Sphere of our
existence and its connections with the Immanent Sphere of everyday life.
2.5. To Discover the Logic of Creation
If Language were sufficient to discover Science, this would have been

discovered at the dawn of civilisation. If rigorous Logic were sufficient to
discover Science, this would have been discovered by the Greeks.
To discover Science, it is not sufficient to think and reflect (Language),
or to resort to rigorous reasoning (Mathematical Logic). To discover
Science (Logic of Creation), there is one single route: to present rigorously
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 299
formulated questions to the Creator. This requires an act of humility: recog-

nition that the Creator is more intelligent than any of us – philosophers,
thinkers, mathematicians, logicians, scientists. It is necessary to surrender
ourselves before the intellectual Majesty of He who made the world.
It was Galilei who understood this. He it was who said that the foot-
prints of the Creator were to be found in the stones (just as in the Stars).
Galilei brought the Logic of the Stars into common matter (stones, string,
wood), through an act of Faith and Love towards Creation.
In pre-Galilean thinking, for atheists and believers alike, matter could not
be a depository of fundamental truth. The Fathers of the Church were the
first to say that Nature is a Book written by God. Galilei had the privilege of
understanding that the characters of that Book had by nature to be mathe-
matical, and that it was not enough to reflect on the heavens and Stars.
All preceding cultures attributed to the heavens properties that lay
above those of the stones. Galilei brought the Logic of Creation into stones
and common matter, saying that our intellect has a power below that of the
Creator. And thus it is necessary to bow before His intellectual Majesty and
ask humbly how He has made the world. In other words, what rigorous
Logic – of all possible logics – did He follow to make the world as it appears
to our eyes and our intellect? The significance of a rigorous and repro-
ducible experiment is precisely that intended and experienced by Galilei: to
present in humility a question to the Creator.
2.6. Ten Thousand Years Compared with Four Centuries
This is how, in just four centuries, we have managed to decipher a good

part of the Logic of the Creator. And we have managed to understand just
how right was the humility of Galilei. In fact, from the dawn of civilisation
right up to Galilei – in other words, for a good ten thousand years – all that
man thought he had discovered about how the world was made, without
ever carrying out an experiment, turned out to be wrong. Still today,
Galilean teaching rules the logic of all the scientific laboratories in which
the Fundamental Laws of Nature are studied.
Here is a last example of enormous interest today. No one can tell us
if the Superworld exists or not. And yet this theoretical reality has been
placed on rigorous and mathematical foundations. It is on these founda-
tions that we believe we have understood so many properties of the world
in which we live. But even so, the Galilean proof to be certain of the exis-
tence of the Superworld is lacking.
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 300
Logical rigour is not sufficient; Galilean proof is needed, in that this is

the reply the Creator gives to our questions. To know more about the Logic
of Creation, as always, it is necessary to present the right questions to He
who made the world. This is how, in just four centuries, we have reached
the threshold of the Superworld.
2.7. From the Immanent to the Transcendent

Science has the goal of understanding what God has written, using the
rigour of Mathematics. Galilei said and thought that the Fundamental
Laws of Nature are in fact expressed as precise mathematical equations.
What did the father of Science know, how did his studies of oscillating pen-
dulums or stones rolling down an inclined plane allow him to deduce that
rigorous laws had to emerge? Chaos, randomness, whim might just as pos-
sibly have appeared instead: one day like this, a year later quite different.
One law for Pisa, another for the Moon.
Galilei instead was thinking in terms of fundamental and universal
laws, expressible in rigorously mathematical form. Together, these laws
were to represent, and de facto do represent, the Logic of Creation.
‘In that stone there is the hand of the Lord. By studying common
objects I will discover the Laws of He who has made the world’. This was
the Faith that inspired Galilei to challenge the dominant culture of his
time. He simply wanted to read the Book of Nature, written by the
Creator in mathematical characters.
The Book of Nature reveals to us how the world has been made: the
work of Creation. This opus could have been written in no other way but
rigorously, in mathematical characters. It is the scientist, in the first person,
who has to strive in order that everyone should know how to read that
astonishing and fascinating Book.
In it is written how the world is made. Since it is dealing with a con-
struction, its language has to be rigorous. Knowing how to read it means
making available for the benefit of man the laws that rule the Cosmos, in
communion, not in antithesis, with the word of God, that is, the Bible. The
Bible is written in a simple way, so that everyone can understand it; its pur-
pose is not to explain how the Immanent part of our existence is made.
Instead, it has the goal of tracing out for man the path that leads to the Lord.
Science gives us the certainty of not being children of Chaos, but of a rigor-
ous Logic. Who is the Author of this Logic? Atheism replies: no one. This is
why Science, born in the Immanent, brings man towards the Transcendent,
because it is absurd that a rigorous Logic does not have an Author.
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 301
2.8. ‘The Light of the World’
The twentieth century will go down in History as the era in which the
use of Science (Technology) was at the service of political violence. This era
led to the tragic dark periods of Nazism and Stalinism.
Professor Pëtr Kapitza, discoverer of superfluidity and expelled from
university, reduced to living – as noted in Section 1.4 – without income until
the death of Stalin for having refused to manage the Soviet H bomb proj-
ect, defined John Paul II as being the:
Light of the World set alight to dispel the tragic shadows of Nazism
and Stalinism.
2.9. The Berlin Wall was to Fall in the Fourth Millennium. Instead ...
During the seventies, various meetings were held at Erice behind

closed doors, to reflect on the danger of an East-West Nuclear Holocaust.
Participants in the meetings included a number of twentieth-century
giants of Galilean Science. These included Paul Dirac, Eugene Wigner,
Pëtr Kapitza, Edward Teller, Isidor Rabi, Victor Weisskopf, Richard
Feynman and Robert Wilson. As we have mentioned before, Kapitza had
had the courage to say no to Stalin, who wanted him as director of the
Soviet H bomb project. This refusal had cost him expulsion from all uni-
versity and scientific duties, with consequences that can easily be imag-
ined. Kapitza fell from being a prominent member of academia (discov-
erer of superfluidity) to maintenance technician of electrical equipment
until the death of Stalin. Along with Wigner and Teller, Dirac had partic-
ipated in the Manhattan Project, refusing any payment. Teller and Wigner
were the fathers of the American H bomb project.
The conclusion of these meetings was: conflict is to be avoided at all
costs. However, sooner or later, unfortunately, something will happen.
Kapitza feared the arrival of someone crazy and irresponsible at the
head of the USSR.
Had this happened, the first shot would have been fired by the USSR.
And in a nuclear exchange, first shot means certain victory. Unfortunately –
even without an irresponsible leader in the USSR – there was always the
potential weakness, typical of a free and democratic system, to contend with.
If in the USA – through normal democratic process – a weak presi-
dent had been elected, the USSR head, while in no way an irresponsible
criminal but a politician educated on Leninism and Stalinism, might
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 302
have decided to grasp the opportunity with both hands. And to fire – on
the basis of some pretext devised for the purpose – the first shot. But
only a country whose governmental structure lacked the check of public
opinion – and no other – could take advantage of the temporary weak-
ness of the political adversary. The USSR held a potential for warfare
twice that of the USA.
Conclusion: the USSR would have taken over Europe. And we would
have had many centuries of ‘real socialism’. The United States of America
would never have envisaged a war to free Europe. They would have accept-
ed the modus vivendi, just as they had accepted the surrender of eastern
Europe to Soviet Imperialism.
The prediction, in the closed-door discussions of these scientific sum-
mits, was that our culture would have been reborn – not as a result of lib-
eration by the USA – but rather as a consequence of the slow shift, very slow
but inexorable, of ‘real socialism’ towards democracy and freedom.
Estimated timescale: several centuries, perhaps a thousand years.
No one had predicted the arrival of John Paul II and that the Berlin Wall
would fall.
This Pope brought about a rebirth of our culture with its values and
conquests before the beginning of the third millennium. In this rebirth,
right at the front, lies Galilean Science. The closed-door discussions held at
Erice over the course of many years have convinced me of the importance
of a totally unexpected and unforeseeable fact. A fact that in the history
books of future millennia will be described as a miraculous event: the total-
ly unpredicted irruption of this Pope into the History of the world. The
Berlin Wall fell in the second millennium, not the fourth.
3. SO-CALLED SCIENTIFIC POPULARISATION AND THE MOST SERIOUS OF ALL

CULTURAL LIES: SCIENCE AND FAITH ARE ENEMIES
Atheist culture has used so-called popularisation of science to endorse

so much cultural untruth. It has never spoken of Galilean truth nor has
it ever talked about how Science came into being. Instead, through its
propaganda campaigns, it has spread the most serious of cultural false-
hoods, which would have ‘Science and Faith as enemies’. And the pillar
underlying this lie would have us believe that Science cannot be a source
of values.
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 303
3.1. The Values of Science and Faith are Closely Linked

We will now see, instead, that Science is a source of values, and that
these values are in perfect harmony with the values of Faith, not in
antithesis. Below is a short summary of the values that Science has in
common with Faith.
Revolution
We begin with the concept of revolution. When a scientific discovery
arises, the dominant culture loves to point out that a real revolution has
taken place.
The scientific revolution has never produced deaths or injuries. The
concept of ‘revolution’ derives from the discovery that it was the Earth and
the other satellites of the Sun that move, going around in their orbits. It was
the ‘revolution of the orbits’ that gave life to Galilean Science. The term ‘rev-
olution’ intended to emphasise the impact of the ‘revolution of the orbits’ of
the planets on the history of the world. With the passage of time, cultural
mystification is at work such that the scientific term ‘revolution of the
orbits’ comes to take on the meaning of ‘socio-political revolution’ like the
October Revolution that led to the first example of a Republic with Atheism
as State religion, causing many millions of victims.
Instead, following a scientific revolution, everyone is richer than
before. It would be more correct to speak of construction, rather than rev-
olution. In Science, there is never denial of the past: it is improved, taken
on board and built on. It is as if, when climbing an immense mountain,
what we took to be the summit opens up a panorama never before
observed – and, as if this were not enough, with it comes the discovery
that there is another, even higher, peak.
The term scientific revolution does not in any way justify social revolu-
tion. But this is what the dominant atheist culture indeed did, in order to
persuade that, after all, scientific rigour had necessarily to go down the
road of revolution, understood in the commonly accepted sense of revolt,
with attendant massacres and horrors of every type.
Racism
A scientist cannot say:
I am unable to believe in this new scientific discovery because it was
made by a man whose skin has a different colour from mine.
Science is an intellectual activity that rejects racism outright.
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 304
Universality
Man has always been in search of universal values. Science shows that
Universal Laws exist. The Weak Forces that produce measurable phenom-
ena in our laboratories are the same as those that make the Sun work. The
light produced by a match is analogous to that produced by the Stars. The
Gravitational Force, which makes a stone fall downwards and that holds us
to the Earth is the same Force that oversees the formation of our Solar
System and of the Galaxies.
Elevation of the Individual
Science exalts the individual and his work. The value of a scientist is not
established by the power of the military tank, but by his intellect and
research labours.
And here the entire sum of contribution must be recognised. Albert
Einstein is inconceivable without Max Planck, James Maxwell, Isaac
Newton and Galileo Galilei. All scientists, giants of Science: all believers.
Intellectual Stimulus
Science spurs man on to reach out for further conquests. There is no

rest in our endeavour to extend and improve our knowledge. Instead, an
ideology is put forward as if it were the final goal of an intellectual con-
quest. And this holds man back, century after century, on frontiers created
from abstract speculations, which in no time at all become dogma.
Science accepts the dogma of the Transcendent. But it rejects dogma of
the Immanent.
Humility
The scientist in his daily work faces problems he is unable to resolve.

Galilei took more than a decade to understand friction and thereby arrive
at the formulation of the first law of motion. Einstein dedicated eleven
years, from 1905 to 1916, to get to the bottom of the significance of
Galilei’s experiments of the fall of material bodies. Eleven years, to man-
age to succeed in writing one equation. Science is made up of unresolved
problems. Something happens, and we move on to the next thing. And
there our difficulties begin again. Einstein worked for the last thirty years
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 305
of his life in an attempt at unification of all the Forces of Nature. It was

the great, unfinished opus. How can a man who is unable to reply to a
question be arrogant? Science, as we have said before, is made up of
unresolved questions. This is why it is based on a pillar of intellectual
humility. Arrogance is born of ignorance.
Truth
Should a scientist tell a lie, he would be excluded from the scientific

context. For Science, something that is true has to be reproducible. The
scientist, when he comes to understand something or make a discovery,
has to explain in full detail how he has arrived at that result. Whoever, no
matter what the colour of his skin, and wherever, and at any given
moment, he has to be able to reproduce that scientific truth. Mystification
and falsehood lie outside scientific activity.
Reflection on Facts
Science teaches us to reflect, to not rush to conclusions without

checking every consequence of a discovery in the known sectors of the
fundamental structures of Creation. Science trains us for objective, not
emotive, judgement. It relies on facts, experimental proof that is repro-
ducible, the baptism of Galilean scientific legitimacy. It does not rely on
words and abstract formulae. Nor does it make sense to say that a theory
is mathematically beautiful or ugly. It can be only true or false, although
it also happens, almost always, that when a piece of research reaches its
conclusion, when in a specific field everything has finally been under-
stood, then the mathematical formulation turns out to be more elegant
than anticipated.
Goodness and Tolerance
Science teaches intellectual goodness and tolerance. Extremes have to

be understood, not defeated. Things that appear to be poles apart can
both turn out to be necessary for a description of the fundamental phe-
nomena of Nature. Just one example should suffice: the wave and parti-
cle property. Light, for a long time, was considered to be a particle phe-
nomenon. Then wave-like. And the two descriptions seemed to be mutu-
ally exclusive. Instead, light is at one and the same time both wave and
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 306
particle. Many centuries have been needed to come to this understanding.

The wave-particle duality is valid not only for light, but for all particles.
This duality is one of the most significant conquests in the history of sci-
entific thought.
Fight Against Preconceptions
Science fights an unceasing battle against preconceptions: even if cen-

turies are needed to dismantle them. The great difference between
Classical Physics and Modern Physics lies in the fact that a tiny quantity
(the so-called Planck’s Constant) was considered to be exactly zero.
Another enormous quantity (the speed of light) was considered infinite.
Three hundred years to break down two preconceptions.
Generosity
Science also has important facets of generosity. To explain to others

the results of a discovery is something that enriches both scientist and lis-
tener. Science teaches that there exists a form, absolutely perfect, of gen-
erosity and love for our neighbour. He who gives up a piece of bread car-
ries out an action of good, but clearly suffers if he has little bread. He who
gives away what he knows, loses nothing, even if he ends up giving away
everything he has.
Freedom of Thought
Freedom of thought is of vital importance for Science. This includes

respect for that form of living matter known as man, and therefore
respect for his dignity. Of all the forms of living matter, we in fact are the
only one which has been granted the privilege of understanding the Logic
He followed in creating the reality in which we live and of which we are
made. This unique privilege is the source of the highest dignity to which
one can aspire: that of being made in the image and likeness of the
Creator of all things visible and invisible. To read the Book of Nature,
written by the Creator, one needs to be free of any prejudice. The only
guide being the replies given by He who has made the world when we put
forward a question. The intellectual freedom to put a question to He who
has made the world has to be absolute.
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 307
3.2. If We Were to Live in the Era of Science
If we lived in the era of Science, these values would form an integral

part of so-called modern culture. In fact, they are truths that render Science
an intellectual activity that is in perfect communion with religious thought.
We are dealing with two essential components that make up our existence:
one that operates within the Immanent, Science; the other that operates
within the Transcendent, Faith.
And this is the conclusion one comes to. Science, by studying the
Immanent in the most rigorous way that human intellect has ever been able
to conceive, discovers a series of truths, whose values are in perfect har-
mony with those that the same form of living matter, called man, learns
from the Revealed Truth.
Four centuries after the time of Galilei, that which the father of
Science was able to see with a pure act of Faith and Love towards
Creation becomes visible in dazzling clarity: Nature and the Bible are
both works by the same Author.
The Bible – said Galilei – is the word of God. Nature instead is His writing.
If we lived in the era of Science, these truths would be the cultural her-
itage of everyone.
3.3. The Other Cultural Mystifications of ‘Scientific’ Popularisation
Scientific Culture has the duty to correct the cultural mystifications of

popularisation of science, mystifications that might at first sight seem mis-
takes committed in good faith. But the fact that they are all bound to a com-
mon cultural substrate confirms that they are not. In fact, the mystification
that Faith and Science are in antithesis is not the only instance where false-
hood is elevated to truth by popularisation of science. There are many
more. Here are a few examples.
Popularisation of Science has:
– confused Science with Technology.
– never explained that the three great conquests of Reason are:
Language, Logic and Science.
– always kept silent regarding the Galilean distinction of the three
levels of scientific credibility.
– attributed to Science the responsibilities of the Planetary
Emergencies; these responsibilities belong to political violence
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 308
(planet packed with chemical, bacteriological and nuclear

bombs) and economic violence (irresponsible industrialisation).
– elected itself spokesman of ideas (for example: scientific material-
ism) that are in total contradiction with the conquests of scien-
tific thought.
– endorsed as frontiers of true and great Science research activities
that still lie below the third level of scientific credibility (for
example: BEHS, biological evolution of the human species).
Our epoch will go down in History as that in which cultural mystifica-
tion has raged: falsehood becomes truth.
The main author of this mystification has been the dominant culture,
first Marxist then leftist.
In this way, Science and Technology have been deliberately confused.
And blame continues to be laid at the feet of Science, blame that instead
belongs to political violence. Violence which, in the twentieth century, had
examples of terrifying power in Hitler and Stalin, who exploited the use of
Science (Technology) for political ends, not for progress or civilisation.
3.4. If Everything is Science, Nothing is Science
‘Scientific Culture’ is the only form of defence against cultural pollu-

tion, maintained Dirac, Kapitza and Fermi. If everything is Science then
nothing is Science. And it is impossible to explain that scientific Marxism
is the exact opposite of Science. It is thus necessary to distinguish Science
from the other conquests of Reason – i.e., from Mathematical Logic and
Language.
The umbrella of Language covers Poetry, Art, Philosophy and all intel-
lectual activity that is not concerned with reading the Book of Nature in
order to decipher the Logic followed by He who has made the world.
Using Language, in all its forms, everything can be said and its contrary.
Language – as Borges says – has the supreme aspiration of ‘magnificent’
structures such as a Poem can have, leaving aside Logic and Science,
which is the Logic of the Creation.
Scientific knowledge is engaged full time in studying – in a Galilean
reproducible way – this Logic. The key to distinguishing this activity from
all others lies in intellectual humility, without which scientific knowledge
would never have been born nor able to grow. This intellectual humility,
which is vital for scientific knowledge, is not always present – in fact,
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 309
often quite the reverse – in intellectual activities that contribute to the

growth of non-scientific knowledge. This is why there is only one Science,
while there are many forms of Art, Literature and Philosophy and other
intellectual activities, often in contradiction one with another. This has
been the case in the past and will continue to be so in the future. Even so,
it is philosophical thought that produces fundamental contributions in
the study of the Transcendental Sphere of our existence.
The contradiction intrinsic in Language’s very structure is surmount-
ed when Philosophy comes into play: its roots allow an understanding of
how and why this contradiction does not have to extend beyond the con-
quests of Language.
In other words, the fact that there are various forms of Poetry, Art,
Music cannot be taken as a basis on which to build a humanistic culture
in contrast with Scientific Culture. The contradiction lies in the Creativity
of Language itself, from which arise various expressions of our way of
hearing and seeing the world. It is right that it is so. It is required by
Language’s very structure. It is here that the links with the Transcendental
Sphere of our existence come into being, links that extend to Logic and
Science through the creative processes of these great conquests of Reason
in the Immanent. Creativity in Language finds its maximum structure in
philosophical thought, without which it would not be possible to reflect
on the Transcendental Sphere of our life. It is at this frontier that
Philosophy expresses the highest creative power.
Creativity in Science has to coincide with the Logic chosen by He who
has made the world to create the reality we are made of and in which we
live. We scientists are not able to invent the existence of the third lepton.
We can imagine its existence on the basis of experimental results, which
can suggest new avenues for us to follow.
But whether the third lepton exists is known to the Creator, before any
scientist in the world. It is He who has decided to include this ‘third col-
umn’ in the structure of Creation.
We have been granted the privilege of discovering that it does indeed exist.
With Mathematical Logic, the significance of Creativity is different. It
is a legitimate act of the intellect to invent a new mathematical structure:
with its rules and theorems. This structure does not necessarily have its
correspondence in the Logic of Creation.
In order for this mathematical-logical structure to exist, the only condi-
tion is the principle of non-contradiction. But the principle of non-contra-
diction arises in philosophical thought, an integral part of Language. Logic
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 310
formulates this principle rigorously, and uses it to underpin any of its struc-
tures. A structure – completely invented by the intellect – must not lead to
a theorem and the negation of the theorem itself.
Having said this, the problem of the role of Mathematics in the Logic of
the Creation remains open: this topic has impassioned the very best math-
ematicians of all time. There is no doubt that a formidable logical-mathe-
matical structure can exist (and therefore be non-contradictory), without
there being any correspondence with the reality of the world in which we
live and of which we are made.
This in no way diminishes the fascination of the Creativity in the two
conquests of Reason (Language and Logic), which, as distinct from
Science, do not fall under Galilean-type experimental confirmation.
However, it is of fundamental importance to distinguish Science from
the other two conquests of the Reason of the Immanent, in that, if every-
thing is Science, then nothing is Science, with all the devastating cultural
consequences, some of which are referred to in this Section.
3.5. Cultural Pollution
Kapitza said:
Cultural pollution is the most difficult Planetary Emergency to
overcome.
Here is an example. In the USSR, very few knew of the ecological disasters
caused by the triumphs of the ‘five-year plans’ made known everywhere
through propaganda campaigns, even in the western world, where they
were taken as models of unprecedented development. In Italy, Communist
Party members made great reference to them. No one, however, spoke of
the ecological disasters of Semipalatinsk (100 times worse than Chernobyl),
the ‘Aral Sea’ (50% of its waters destroyed), the ‘City of Sulphur’ (an area as
large as half of Piedmont, contaminated to the point where the population
had to go around wearing gas masks). These were the times of the cold war
and no one dared to hope for a collapse of the USSR. But even so, the hero
of Science, Pëtr Kapitza, considered it necessary to start immediately to
fight cultural pollution in countries that were free; in those dominated by
the USSR it was unthinkable. Dirac said:
It is easy to declare ourselves as free men where there is democracy
and freedom. Try doing this where political violence rages. Kapitza
understood the consequences.
Cultural pollution has its roots in political and economic violence,
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 311
which, by dominating the media (TV, radio, press and other channels), has
enabled so many flagrant cultural mystifications to become ‘truth’.
A terribly effective arm of cultural pollution is pseudo-scientific con-
fusion, an essential component of popularisation. To cite meaningless
data as if they were Galilean proofs of scientific truth; to introduce appar-
ently valid arguments with bibliographic references that add nothing to
the inexistent proof of the point in question: this is the technique of cul-
tural pollution that siphons off valuable energy from the struggle for the
triumph of Scientific Culture.
3.6. Science, Art and Mysticism
According to a number of scholars, the pillars supporting our existence

are: ‘Science’ (rational approach), ‘Art’ (aesthetic approach) and ‘Mysticism’
(religious approach). These theories have nothing new to say about the con-
quests of Reason. Rather, they go backwards in time because they ignore
Galilean teaching. In fact, they confuse the Transcendental Sphere of our
existence (to which Mysticism belongs) with the Immanent Sphere (to
which Science belongs). Furthermore, they include in the so-called ‘ration-
al approach’ both Science and Mathematics, confusing Science with Logic.
Galilei teaches that, to discover Science, the rigour of Mathematical Logic
(thus, the rational approach) is not sufficient.
If it were so, the Logic of Creation would have been discovered by the
Greeks, two thousand years before Galilei. If mathematical rigour sufficed,
we could say that the Superworld existed. The Galilean thesis is based on
‘Language’, ‘Logic’ and ‘Science’ and it could not be more rigorous in dis-
tinguishing the three conquests of Reason. Art in fact belongs to Language.
Summary and Conclusions
The ten statements of John Paul II have given life to a Scientific Culture
that lies in communion, and not conflict, with Faith. In the 1980s, this
Culture strove to make a real contribution to overcoming the risk of a
Nuclear Holocaust. Then, with the fall of the Berlin Wall came the need to
avoid the danger of an Environmental Holocaust created by the political and
economic violence that fired the undeclared War between the planet’s North
(the rich) and South (the poor). Once again, Scientific Culture in commun-
ion with Faith took action to avoid the latent danger of an Environmental
Holocaust, by implementing pilot projects related to the Planetary
Emergencies, through the scientific voluntariate of its community.
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 312
Atheist Culture, using as its arm public dissemination of what is

passed off as Science, has instead wanted all to believe that Science and
Faith are enemies. It has always confused Science with Technology, has
never explained that the three towering conquests of Reason are:
Language, Logic and Science, never mentioned the Galilean distinction
between the three levels of scientific credibility, and has laid at Science’s
feet the responsibility for the Planetary Emergencies – responsibility that
instead belongs to political violence (planet packed with chemical, bac-
teriological and nuclear bombs) and economic intemperance (unac-
countable industrialisation). Atheist Culture too has acted as spokesman
of ideas, such as scientific materialism, that lie in utter contradiction
with the conquests of scientific thought, and has endorsed as frontiers of
real and true Science, research activities that still lie below the third level
of scientific credibility (for example: biological evolution of the human
species: BEHS).
Had Atheist Culture itself discovered Science, then the ten statements
of John Paul II would never have been conceived. These represent the cul-
tural guide to the concrete deeds of which the Holy Father has been author,
right from the very first days of his Pontificate. And it is this guide that has
made possible the birth of a Scientific Culture in communion, not antithe-
sis, with Faith. The influence of the Great Alliance with Science and its val-
ues has enabled the danger of the Nuclear Holocaust to be overthrown
(Erice Statement), and allowed the creation of scientific and technological
foundations from which to confront issues of the Environmental Holocaust
(pilot projects for the Planetary Emergencies).
The 20th century will take its place in History for having seen the fall of
the Berlin Wall and the start of an undeclared War between North (the rich)
and South (the poor). The third millennium has need of a Scientific Culture
that is the fruit of the Great Alliance between the two most important con-
quests of Reason, which are Science, in the Immanent of our existence, and
the God-given gift connected with Reason in the Transcendent of our being,
Faith. We would do well to recall that St. Paul and all our theological tra-
dition define Faith as a gift from God. A gift linked to Reason, as described
by St. Thomas of Aquinas:
Naturalis ratio per creaturas in Dei cognitionem ascendit, fidei vero
cognitio a Deo in nos e converso divina revelatione descendit.4
4
‘Natural reason ascends to a knowledge of God through creatures and, conversely,
the knowledge of faith descends from God to us by divine revelation’ (ScG IV 1, 3349).
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 313
While emphasising the rational aspect of Faith, the entire Christian biblical
tradition attributes it to the inner touch by the Spirit of God (instinctus Dei
invitantis by St. Thomas of Aquinas) that awakens the dynamism of
freewill. Faith is thus considered by Christian theology as a gift from God
within man’s Reason, which under the impulse of this same freewill, and
aided by the Holy Spirit, accepts the gift.
We are the only form of living matter that has been granted the privi-
lege of the gift of Reason and freewill. Let us seek to use it well. The third
millennium must open up man’s heart to hope through a Scientific Culture
in synergy with Faith, not in antithesis. This is why, as this remarkable Pope
teaches, Science must do all in its power to ensure the triumph of the val-
ues of the Galilean Scientific Culture.
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 314
ADDENDUM
ELEMENTS OF SCIENTIFIC RIGOR

IN THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION
1. Premise
During this Conference the problem of ‘evolution’ was discussed. My

paper (Scientific Culture and the Ten Statements of John Paul II) was not
intended to deal with this problem. On various occasions, I have made
remarks on the need for a ‘rigorous’ attempt to describe ‘evolution’, espe-
cially as it regards the Human Species. This paper is a coherent synthesis
of my attempt to encourage our colleagues in the biological Sciences to
introduce the Galilean rules in their research work concerning evolution.
2. More About the Three Levels of Scientific Credibility
The scope of this work is to lay out a rigorous, Galilean-type scientific

foundation for the Biological Evolutionism of the Human Species. As men-
tioned in my paper, Galilei teaches that three levels of scientific credibility
exist. Let me elaborate on the three levels, since the understanding of these
levels is closely related to the scientific rigor that is needed in the descrip-
tion of the Biological Evolutionism of the Human Species.
The first is that which entails: (1) mathematical rigor as a fundamental
referent in the formulation of a problem, (2) the invention of an instrument
capable of carrying out the key experiment for giving an answer to the
problem, and (3) the reproducibility of the result obtained. The repro-
ducible result is one of the foundation blocks of Galilean Science. It is obvi-
ous that the result also must be expressed in mathematically rigorous
terms, and it is this that permits the elaboration of a theory able to describe
not only the reproducible result that is obtained thanks to the invention of
the original instrument, but also to point out further experiments to be con-
ducted with new instruments in order to put the new theoretical formula-
tion to the scrutiny of further experimental tests. An example of present day
frontier of Physics: the Superworld. We think that a description of the phe-
nomena known so far requires a Space-Time with 43 dimensions: 11 boson-
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 315
ic and 32 fermionic. The elaboration of the mathematical structure that

describes this reality has arrived at the conclusion that new particles must
exist; we have dedicated the last decade to the search for these particles
without being able to obtain any reproducible experimental proof.
The Superworld theory is an example in which there is mathematical
rigor in the formulation of the problem but there is no reproducible exper-
imental proof. Therefore it could be that the Superworld theory is not part
of the Logic of Nature. This is what the years to come will tell. The
Superworld is an example of first-level Galilean Science to the extent that
the experimental tests are susceptible to direct control: in case of doubt it
is possible to intervene by repeating the experiments and by inventing new
instruments that allow us to overcome doubts that may arise in the course
of data analysis for a particular experiment. An experiment that we are able
to keep totally under control, here on Earth.
The second level of scientific credibility is that in which it is not pos-
sible to keep the experimental test under control. There is mathematical
rigor in the formulation of the problem and there is the invention of new
instruments for observing the effects searched for, but there is no direct
intervention. An example: the theory of stellar evolution. In one part of
the sky, we observe the birth of a Star. In another part, the shining of a
Star born for some time. In yet another part, the death of a Star.
Different observations of many Stars being born, of others that are living
and still others that are collapsing, allow the elaboration of a theory of
stellar evolution. There is mathematical rigor. Reproducibility is guaran-
teed by the observation of different examples of Stars as they are being
born, during their lifetime and as they are dying. What is missing, how-
ever, is the possibility of direct intervention. In cases of doubt we cannot
turn off or turn on a Star. We cannot change the characteristics of a par-
ticular star in order to scrutinize, through experimental tests, a finding
that could be born from the theory of stellar evolution’s mathematical
elaboration itself. This theory is strongly linked to the first-level Galilean
Science. Example: in the theory of stellar evolution no astrophysicist
could have imagined the existence of neutron stars. It was first necessary
to discover neutrons here on Earth by conducting Galilean-type experi-
ments at the first level of scientific credibility. It was the discovery of the
neutron that permitted the elaboration of mathematical models that led
to the theoretical hypothesis of the existence of neutron Stars. Quite
recently, the observation of certain stellar phenomena has been inter-
preted as indicating the possible existence of ‘quark Stars’. The existence
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 316
of this new class of particles, the quarks themselves, however, was dis-
covered here on Earth by conducting Galilean-type experiments at the
first level of scientific credibility. This is the link that should exist
between the second and the first level.
Moving on to the third. This level of scientific credibility refers to phe-
nomena that occur only one time. At first glance it could seem that the
third level contradicts the notion of ‘experimental reproducibility’. This is
not so. The third level does not in fact leave the first level out of consid-
eration. An example of a phenomenon that happens only one time is that
which is described by cosmic evolution. The Cosmos has the Physics of
pre-Big Bang as its initial phase. Then comes the Big Bang with Time
intervals that range from billionths of billionths of billionths of billionths
of billionths of a second (10 –45: Planck’s Time) to the Time needed for cos-
mic evolution with the energy of the vacuum (Alan Guth’s Time: 10 –34 sec)
to the evolutionary period in which – other than gravitational force –
enter into play the Three Fundamental Forces (strong subnuclear, weak
subnuclear and electromagnetic) of the so-called Standard Model with its
three building blocks of fundamental particles, each of which is com-
posed of two ‘quarks’ and two ‘leptons’. The Time intervals in play for this
phase of cosmic evolution are tenths of billionths of a second. And so one
arrives at the few seconds necessary for making the Cosmos with the par-
ticles familiar to us (protons, neutrons and electrons) and finally the plas-
ma of these particles in the sea of ‘photons’ that lasts a few hundreds of
thousands of years (according to the most recent data, the Time interval
is 380 thousand years). At this point the Cosmos, made essentially of pro-
tons, electrons and photons, passes into the phase in which the Stars and
the Galaxies are born. According to the most recent theories, it could be
‘Black Holes’ (made with the very primitive form of matter which existed
much before the one of the ‘Standard Model’ particles) that act as nuclei
for the formation of galactic structures in which stars are born. The dura-
tion of this phase of cosmic evolution is millions of years. After 15 billion
years we reach the present with ourselves, the Sun, the Earth, the Moon,
the oceans, the mountains, the sunrises and sunsets, the Cathedrals,
Michelangelo’s Pietà and the incredible detail that in this cosmic evolu-
tion there is, in addition to the inert matter, also the living matter, both
vegetable and animal. Among the countless forms of living matter there
is one and only one that is endowed with Reason. It is in fact thanks to
Reason that it has been possible to discover Permanent Collective
Memory, rigorous Logic and Science.
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 317
3. The Evolution of the Universe: an Example of the Third Level
Cosmic evolution is Galilean Science to the extent that it is formulat-

ed in rigorous mathematical terms and linked to the first level. From the
pre-Big Bang on, everything is based on that which has been discovered
at the first level. It is not possible to prove experimentally the repro-
ducibility of cosmic evolution.
No one knows how to make a Big Bang to verify the details that we
would like to put under experimental testing. We can only conduct exper-
iments to understand what happens as we come close to the Big Bang.
Today we have arrived at a tenth of a millionth of a second (10 –10 sec).
Keeping in mind that Planck’s Time lasts 10 – 45 sec, it is wise not to forget
that a good 35 orders of ten separate us from the instant before infla-
tionary expansion bursts forth. These 35 powers of ten are the measure of
our ignorance in the rigorous knowledge of that which we call the ‘theo-
ry of cosmic evolution’.
This theory helps us to understand just how difficult the study of phe-
nomena belonging to the third level of Galilean scientific credibility is.
4. The Evolution in Terms of Galilean Rigor and Experimental Reproducibility
To this level, we repeat, belong all the phenomena that happen only one
time, as in the example of the Biological Evolutionism of the Human
Species. Our species being the only form of living matter endowed with
Reason, it is well to subject the ‘theory of Biological Evolutionism of the
Human Species’ to Galilean-type rigor.
There are those who say that this ‘theory’ represents the frontier of
Galilean Science. We would like this to be true. To accomplish this, howev-
er, it is necessary to establish for this theory a foundation in mathematical
rigor and experimental reproducibility. Doing this requires an analysis that
is attentive to the phenomenon called ‘evolutionism’. Evolution exists at the
level of elementary particles, at the level of aggregates made up of inert
matter, and at the level of aggregates of living matter.
First of all, a clarification. While being studied, the phenomenon
called ‘evolution’ can reveal itself only in ‘Space-Time’. The first rigorous
study of evolution at the level of elementary particles concerns electrons.
It is not by chance that the electron itself is the first example of an ‘ele-
mentary particle’ (discovered by Thomson in 1897).
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 318
Dirac, fascinated by the discovery of Lorentz that Space-Time could not

be a real quantity but instead a complex one (if Space is real, Time must be
imaginary, and vice versa), decided to study with rigor the evolution of the
electron in Time and Space. This was how he discovered his equation.
The rigorous study of evolutionism at the level of elementary particles
brought Dirac to discover a reality that no philosopher, no poet, no thinker
of any epoch or civilization was able to imagine. This reality begins with
antiparticles and brings us to the discovery of antimatter, antistars and anti-
galaxies to arrive at our world, which seems to be made up only of matter,
stars and galaxies, without any antistars or antigalaxies. An experiment to
be conducted in the year 2008 in the International Space Station will tell us
if it is really true that in the course of cosmic evolution every trace of anti-
matter was broken down in order to build up a Universe, like the one in
which we are living, that consists only of matter. If in our laboratories we
had discovered that antimatter could not exist, the problem of a Universe
made only of matter would not exist. This is not so. The existence of anti-
matter was confirmed in a rigorously Galilean manner in 1965.
Nevertheless, in the Universe there is no more antimatter.
It is possible to formulate in a mathematically rigorous mode the theo-
ry of cosmic evolution that cancels out antimatter at a certain point.
According to this theory of cosmic evolution, we are here thanks to the fact
that, in the process of ‘cancellation’, a tiny fraction (one part in 10 thousand
million (1010)) of matter prevailed over antimatter. No one could say if this
theory is that which corresponds to the cosmic reality of which we are a
minimal part. The only certainty is that this theory will be scrutinized close-
ly via Galilean-type experimental tests in the years to come.
Starting from the evolution of an elementary particle we have arrived
at the problems of cosmic evolution. This means that we have passed
from typical structures of the subnuclear world (10 –17 cm) to galactic
structures that reach to the confines of the Universe (10 29 cm); better still,
if the inflationary evolutionism of Alan Guth is true, to even greater cos-
mic distances. The theory of evolution in the study of inert matter, from
the heart of a proton to the confines of the Cosmos, enables one to inter-
link within a single structure everything that happens in zones of space
that are differentiated by at least 46 powers of ten. We have done this
using the three levels of Galilean scientific credibility.
This is the most rigorous knowledge we have when dealing with the con-
cept of the evolution of the fundamental structure of inert matter. Let us call
this level number 1. The Table below describes the details of this level.
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 319
Table 1. EVOLUTION AND SCIENCE
LEVEL NUMBER ONE
I Evolution in the Fundamental Structure of Inert Matter:
I-1 Evolution in Space-Time of the lightest electrically

charged lepton: the Dirac equation.
I-2 Evolution in the description of the elementary process-

es involving inert matter: the Feynman diagrams and
the problem of Renormalization (i.e. no divergent
results in theoretical calculations).
I-3 Evolution in the Universe and in its structure.
I-3-1 The Physics of the Pre-Big-Bang.
I-3-2 The Physics of the Big-Bang.
I-3-3 The basic structure of matter and of the Fundamental

Forces in the Evolution of the Universe: from the Planck
Scale to present day.
I-3-4 The origin of Galaxies and their distribution in Space-

Time.
I-3-5 The origin of a Star and its evolution (Gravitational,

Electroweak and Strong Forces).
I-3-6 The origin of condensed forms of cold matter (Planets,

Asteroids, Comets and others).
The level number 2 refers to the evolution of the macroscopic structure

of inert matter. This and the other levels are schematically given in the
Table 2 below.
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 320
Table 2. EVOLUTION AND SCIENCE
LEVEL NUMBER TWO
II EVOLUTION IN THE MACROSCOPIC STRUCTURE OF

INERT MATTER.
II-1 The crystals.
II-2 Other forms of conglomerate matter and the understanding of

their properties.
THE OTHER LEVELS
III THE TRANSITION FROM INERT MATTER TO LIVING

MATTER.
IV EVOLUTION IN THE ENORMOUS VARIETY OF ‘NON-ANI-

MAL’ LIVING MATTER.
V THE TRANSITION FROM ‘NON-ANIMAL’ TO ‘ANIMAL’

FORMS OF LIVING MATTER.
VI THE EVOLUTION IN THE ENORMOUS VARIETY OF ‘ANI-

MAL’ FORMS OF LIVING MATTER.
VII THE TRANSITION FROM THE INNUMERABLE POSSIBILI-

TIES OF NON-REASONING LIVING FORMS OF MATTER TO
THAT OF LIVING MATTER WITH ‘REASON’.
VIII THE EVOLUTION OF THE SPECIFIC FORM OF LIVING MAT-

TER CALLED ‘THE HUMAN SPECIES’.
IX THE DISCOVERY OF COLLECTIVE MEMORY, i.e. WRIT-

TEN LANGUAGE.
X THE DISCOVERY OF LOGIC AND OF ITS MOST RIGOROUS

FORM: MATHEMATICS.
XI THE DISCOVERY OF SCIENCE: THE LOGIC OF NATURE.
XII REFLECTIONS ON HOW IT HAPPENS THAT WE ARE THE

ONLY FORM OF LIVING MATTER WITH ‘REASON’.
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 321
All these levels need to be fully understood before we reach the level
where we need to think about how we happen to be the only form of living
matter with ‘Reason’ (level XII).
In fact, the extraordinary characteristic of the world in which we live is
that the Hardware is the same for all forms of matter: from the most ele-
mentary inert element (the electron) to the most advanced form of matter
with Life and Reason (the Human Species).
The Table below (Table 3) illustrates the five points that represent the
Hardware.
Table 3. THIS HARDWARE (i.e. OUR OWN) OBEYS THE FOLLOWING LOGIC
① RGEs (Grand Unification).
② Gauge Principle (hidden & expanded dimensions).
③ The Physics of Imaginary Masses: SSB.
④ Flavour Mixings & CP , T .
⑤ Anomalies & Instantons.
–17
From the structure of a Proton (10 cm)
to the
extreme borders of the Universe (10 29 cm).
Atoms, Molecules, Inert and Living Matter.
More detailed information on the Hardware is given in Table 4.

22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 322
Table 4. DETAILED INFORMATION ON THE HARDWARE
① RGEs (αi (i 1, 2, 3); mj (j q, l, G, H)) : ƒ (k 2).

● GUT (α GUT 1/24) & GAP (1016 – 1018) GeV.
● SUSY (to stabilize mF/mP 10 –17).
● RQST (to quantize Gravity).
② Gauge Principle (hidden and expanded dimensions).

— How a Fundamental Force is generated: SU(3); SU(2); U(1) and Gravity.
③ The Physics of Imaginary Masses: SSB.

— The Imaginary Mass in SU(2) U(1) produces masses ( mW± ; mZ 0 ; mq ;ml),
including m γ = 0.
— The Imaginary Mass in SU(5) ⇒SU(3)SU(2)U(1) or in any higher
Symmetry Group (not containing U(1))⇒SU(3)SU(2)U(1) produces
Monopoles.
— The Imaginary Mass in SU(3)c generates Confinement.
④ Flavour Mixings & CP , T .

— No need for it but it is there.
⑤ Anomalies & Instantons.

— Basic Features of all Non-Abelian Forces.
NOTE:
q quark and squark; mF Fermi mass scale;
l lepton and slepton; mP Planck mass scale;
G Gauge boson and Gaugino; k quadrimomentum;
H Higgs and Shiggs; C Charge Conjugation;
RGEs Renormalization Group Equations; P Parity;
GUT Grand Unified Theory; T Time Reversal;
SUSY Supersymmetry; Breakdown of Symmetry Operators.
RQST Relativistic Quantum String Theory;
SSB Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking.
The five basic steps in our understanding of nature. ① The renormalization group
equations (RGEs) imply that the gauge couplings (α i) and the masses (mj) all run with
k2. It is this running which allows GUT, suggests SUSY and produces the need for a
non point-like description (RQST) of physics processes, thus opening the way to
quantize gravity. ② All forces originate in the same way: the gauge principle. ③
Imaginary masses play a central role in describing nature. ④ The mass-eigenstates are
mixed when the Fermi forces come in. ⑤ The Abelian force QED has lost its role of
being the guide for all fundamental forces. The non-Abelian gauge forces dominate
and have features which are not present in QED.
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 323
Since the Hardware is the same, the following remarks are in order.
It could very well have been that the basic Hardware was there, but not
Life itself.
It could have been that the basic Hardware and Life were there, but no
Consciousness (free will).
It could have also been that the basic Hardware plus Life plus
Consciousness were there, but no Reason.
These points are illustrated in Table 5.
It happens that Reason is there with its three great achievements:
Language, Rigorous Logic and Science as reported in Table 6.
Table 5.
THE BASIC HARDWARE IS THE SAME FOR ALL FORMS OF MATTER
Basic Hardware
but no
Life
Basic Hardware and Life

but no
Consciousness (free will)
Basic Hardware plus Life and Consciousness

but no
Reason
Table 6.
REASON
LANGUAGE:
Written Language
W
La
Permanent Collective Memory
RIGOROUS LOGIC Lo Mathematics
SCIENCE S1, 2, 3 The Logic of Nature

22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 324
5. Conclusion
To conclude: when we speak about evolution we should not forget the

basic constituents of Galilean Science: mathematical rigor and experimen-
tal reproducibility. The Biological Evolutionism of the Human Species is
below the third level of Galilean Science, as can be deduced when we com-
pare this form of evolution with the evolution of the Universe. The Figure
below is a synthesis of all I have said regarding the rigorous description of
the concept called ‘evolution’. A full explanation of this Table would bring
us too far out. I have decided to show it to you in order to give you an idea
of how complex it is to describe ‘evolution’ when we want to include all we
think we know of the world where we live.
We would like to encourage our colleagues engaged in the study of bio-

logical evolution to follow our suggestions in order to reach the goal of
bringing the Biological Evolutionism of the Human Species to the third
level of Galilean Science, like cosmic evolution.
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 325
DISCUSSION ON THE PAPER BY ZICHICHI
JAKI: I’ve struggled with myself during your presentation whether to

make a comment or not, but I decided I had to speak up. When you made
the statement – I leave aside such impossible statements of yours that John
Paul II opened the doors of the Church to science and similar things – but
when you referred to the intellectual humility of Galileo I felt I had to say
something, because already from your previous statements, when it came
to the history of physics, I felt very uneasy. Now, with respect to the intel-
lectual humility of Galileo, I would like to say in brief only this much: had
Galileo’s utter pride prevailed, Newtonian science would have never been
born. That utter pride forced Galileo to stick with the strictly circular orbit
of planets, that utter pride of Galileo, and I’m talking only of scientific mat-
ters, that utter pride of Galileo forced him to ignore Kepler’s work, the Stella
Martis, which contained the elliptical orbit of planets, and the utter pride of
Galileo forced Galileo to ignore two other books of Kepler, one of them the
Harmonice mundi, which contained the two other laws of Kepler, and, had
it not been for a little-known English scientist, astronomer, his name was
Jeremiah Horrocks, who died at the age of 21, just the year he was taken
away by the bubonic plague, who put together a readable summary of
Kepler’s achievements, and had it not been for Horrock’s teacher Wallis in
Cambridge, Newton would have never learnt of the three laws of Kepler,
and without those three laws we would neither have Galilean science, nor
Newtonian science, nor Einsteinian science. I deeply resent the fact that an
eminent scientist like you, a physicist, can run roughshod over elementary
facts in the history of modern physics.
ZICHICHI: Well, I’ve written a book on Galilei which has 150 quotations.
In this book I proved that the acceleration by gravity could have been
measured ten thousand years before with the invention of the inclined
plane. Without the measurement of the acceleration of gravity, Newton
could have done nothing, despite the discoveries of Kepler and all you
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 326
326 DISCUSSION ON THE PAPER BY ZICHICHI
mentioned. The key point was the measurement of the acceleration by

gravity. Point number two: how can you explain, due to the fact that you
think you are right, that for ten thousand years the error in the measure-
ment of time was always one second every day, and after Galilei, now,
we’ve 2 minutes in 20 billion years, and I could do my gadget in 1965 at
the level of a few picoseconds thanks to Galilei, not to anyone else. You
quoted the circular orbits, and if you read my book, which I would be
pleased to send to you, this is the proof that Galilei was a man of faith.
Why? Because when he received the news, the discovery of the Mars orbit,
which could not be circular but elliptic, as you correctly pointed out,
Galilei said, ‘No. God could not choose imperfect geometrical objects’.
This is the proof of Galilei’s faith. You should read my book. In my book I
write down all the discoveries of Galilei. And if you read the book and you
disagree, write to me, say, page number x, this is wrong. I was very careful
in listing the incredible number of correct discoveries made by Galilei. The
story of the orbit is fantastic proof against all members of the dominant
atheistic culture who claim Galilei was not a man of faith, that he was just
afraid of the Church. No. Galilei wrote that he wanted to look for the foot-
print of the Creator. He died convinced that Kepler made a mistake,
because he was thinking about the fact that the orbits had to be perfect
geometrical figures, due to the act of creation. So, the proof of Galilei
being a man of faith is exactly what you have stated.
MÖSSBAUER: I would like to come to the 10 –33 centimetres and to the

–44
10 seconds. We don’t know how to quantize gravitation, apart from string
theory where nothing is proved. It is mathematical philosophy, you’re right,
so we don’t know how to quantise it.
ZICHICHI: Correct. But the point I wanted to emphasize is that your

compatriot Planck was the first man on this planet to realise that the
units, centimetre, second and gramme, are just mankind, anthropomor-
phic: what would be the correspondent values for length, time and mass
if the basic unit in nature were taken to be the fundamental constants: the
speed of light, Planck action and Newton gravitation? This was the great
achievement of Plank. I insist in saying that Planck has not been correct-
ly given the right tribute for this incredible achievement. When we knew
nothing about the unification of the fundamental forces, he realised: what
are you talking about? Centimetres, no! Let us use the fundamental con-
stants. What are the units? Fantastic. They are still there.
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 327
DISCUSSION ON THE PAPER BY ZICHICHI 327
CABIBBO: He was made a member of this Academy on the first possi-

ble occasion.
ZICHICHI: Yes, and he should be celebrated, because he is really one of

the greatest of them all; it is incredible what he did. And people forget, they
start mentioning other people.
PAVAN: I had difficulty in following you and in understanding everything

you said, but, since we don’t have much time for discussion, I would like
you to explain to me what you mean by atheist culture has used so-called
popularisation of science to enclose so much cultural untruth. Are you
against the popularisation of science?
ZICHICHI: No. I’m for the popularisation of science in a correct way.

For example, make a list of the greatest scientists in the history of science
who’ve said science and faith are in contradiction. No one, zero.
Nevertheless, if you take a taxi and you tell the taxi driver: ‘I’m a scientist,
I’m coming from the Vatican’, he will tell you: ‘Professor Pavan, how can
there be a scientist who goes to the Vatican?’ I was asked this question in
1979. Now it’s different, because in Italy I’ve been involved quite a lot, but
in 1979, and for many years, I was questioned like this, ‘You are a scien-
tist, and you go to Church?” Ubi major est, minor cessat. You must pick up
the most important of all effects if you want to understand anything. You
must pick up the number one: how can you justify the existence of this
life? This is mystification. I’m against the erroneous popularisation of sci-
ence. This is why I’m trying to help honest people. I don’t know your
country, so I can only speak about Italy, but in Italy science popularisa-
tion is dominated by atheists at the 99% level.
PAVAN: Not in Brazil.
ZICHICHI: I’m very glad.
VICUÑA: Over these days, Professor Zichichi, you have insisted that sci-
ence and technology can be differentiated clearly, and we scientists can be
searching for the truth and people with wrong intentions can be using this
knowledge for technology in various fields, and I would like to come again
with a comment I made the other day to you, but there wasn’t any time to
pursue it, that there are areas in which science and technology cannot be
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 328
clearly differentiated, and what I see from my standpoint is that there are
many scientists these days in these areas some of whom are colliding with
ethical norms that we would all like to respect, and therefore I don’t see a
scientist anymore as I would like to see, so immaculate just looking for the
truth, and some of them are getting into areas which are related to technol-
ogy, and I don’t think they are using the tools and the methods that we would
have dreamed for scientists who are after the truth or pure knowledge only.
ZICHICHI: A telegraphic answer: science is the study of the logic of

nature. In so far as you study the logic of nature you do science. As soon as
you go out of this, you are out of science. I’ve been involved in technologi-
cal inventions, in scientific discoveries, so I know exactly that these two
items can be clearly classified, and it is in the interest of science, because if
you start with a confusion, then the confusion will go on and we should not
forget that we reached the stage where John Paul II was the only person on
the planet who stood up and made his important declaration when we were
accused of being the authors of the earth packed with H bombs. Enrico
Fermi is not the father of the Hiroshima bomb; that was Hitler. Edward
Teller is not the father of the H bomb; that was Stalin. But try to ask peo-
ple around, and you see the answer. Why? Because the atheistic populari-
sation of science has deliberately created the confusion between science
and the application of scientific discoveries, i.e. technology. Science is the
study of the logic of nature, period.
VICUÑA: Mr. President, one very short question: is the human genome
project science or technology, Professor Zichichi?
ZICHICHI: Technology. Applied science. I’m sorry but this is the truth.
When you will reach the end, you’ll discover the Maxwell equations.
CABIBBO: I don’t think many of the people here would agree with you,
but we will put it on record as your opinion.
GERMAIN: Je peux dire un mot. Notre confrère Zichichi nous a décrit une
science idéale, qui est, d’ailleurs, l’idéal que j’ai de cette science, mais avec
sa volonté de distinguer complètement science et technologie. Alors il se
met dans une position très facile: pour les scientifiques, les choses ne sont
pas aussi simples. Je pense à beaucoup de ce que vous avez dit et puisque
c’est la conclusion de notre Conseil, je pense que ce que nous avons à faire,
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 329
DISCUSSION ON THE PAPER BY ZICHICHI 329
c’est justement de sauver la science là où elle apparaît dans le monde, et elle

apparaît dans le monde avec les applications, et là alors il faut en quelque
sort éduquer le peuple, nos concitoyens pour qu’ils apprennent, dans cette
espèce de monde dans lequel nous nous trouvons, dans lequel effective-
ment les applications de la science sont partout, à faire une distinction.
Mais dire: ‘La science est parfaite et la technologie est tout-à-fait infernale’,
est une position très facile. Vous êtes un physicien théoricien, alors là c’est
facile. Pour d’autres qui ont constamment à faire avec des questions pra-
tiques qui intéressent tout notre peuple, alors la situation n’est pas aussi
facile. Par conséquent, je suis d’accord avec vous, malheureusement je crois
que votre conférence se place dans un monde idéal qui n’est pas celui dans
lequel nous nous trouvons. Merci.
ZICHICHI: Je vous remercie beaucoup, mais je dois dire que je n’ai pas dit
que la technologie est tout méchante, non, j’ai dit, ‘La science c’est l’étude
de la logique de la nature’. Cette logique peut être utilisé pro et contre, mais
le choix entre pro et contre n’est pas scientifique, c’est culturel.
GERMAIN: Oui, mais alors, si vous vous désintéressez de savoir comment

les applications de la science sont faites, vous vous en désintéressez en disant:
‘La société se débrouillera à faire ce qui est favorable, et à ne pas faire ce qui
est défavorable’. Nous ne pouvons pas nous en désintéresser. Dans cette
Académie nous devons dire à nos concitoyens: ‘Oui, la science arrive dans un
état des choses compliqué et mélangé, et c’est très difficile’. Alors, il faut les
aider à comprendre, parce que c’est eux finalement qui choisissent. Mais nous
devons participer, et ce que je reproche c’est qu’avec votre position vous dîtes:
‘C’est pour les autres, alors nous, nous avons bonne conscience’.
ZICHICHI: Alors, je répète: la science on ne peut pas la confondre avec ses

applications, il faut être rigoureusement logique. Alors, s’il y a une chose
qu’on appelle mathématique, ça c’est mathématique, on ne peut pas la
confondre avec une autre discipline.
GERMAIN: Les mathématiques, ça c’est facile.
ZICHICHI: La science est la logique de la nature; étudier la logique de la

nature c’est science. Les applications de la science sont la technologie. Ce
n’est pas moi qui le dit, c’est la rigueur logique. Si on commence à réfléchir,
on arrive à cette conclusion. Je pense que nous avons intérêt à faire de la
22.Zichichi 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 330
culture scientifique, et à mettre au point les choses avec une grande clarté
et rigueur. Donc, il faut dire au grand et vaste public qui ne fait pas de scien-
ce que l’on aurait pu avoir les mêmes résultats scientifiques sans avoir une
seule bombe. Vous êtes d’accord ou non? Evidemment. Pourquoi a-t-on les
applications néfastes de la science? Parce que les applications de la science
ont toujours échappé au contrôle des scientifiques, il ne faut pas oublier ça.
GERMAIN: Mais bien sûr, mais bien sûr. Mais c’est normal, je trouve, que
les applications de la science échappent au contrôle des scientifiques. Mais
les scientifiques doivent s’en occuper.
ZICHICHI: Il ne faut pas dire ça à moi, parce que je m’en suis occupé
plus que tous mes collègues en moyenne. Les applications de la science
dites technologies, peuvent être avec le signe plus et le signe moins.
GERMAIN: D’accord, d’accord.
ZICHICHI: C’est cela que je dis.
GERMAIN: D’accord.
23.Murray(TAVOLE) 18-07-2003 15:01 Pagina 331
SURGERY OF THE SOUL
JOSEPH E. MURRAY
I thank the Pontifical Academy of Sciences for allowing me to speak at

this plenary session on The Cultural Values of Science. As a medical student
sixty years ago, I thought of surgery merely as a series of operations devel-
oped over the years to: (1) save life; (2) restore function; or (3) relieve pain.
Following graduation from medical school in 1943 and a nine-month sur-
gical internship I was drafted into the United Sates Army Medical Corps
and served on active duty for three years until my discharge in late 1947.
My army experience consisted of surgery on battle casualties from the
European, African, and Pacific theatres. This influenced my entire profes-
sional life. It was here that I recognised an additional indication for surgery,
i.e. to improve quality of life.
VALUE OF LIFE
INDICATIONS FOR SURGERY
1. Save life
2. Restore function
3. Relieve pain
4. Improve ‘quality of life’
The title of today’s talk was suggested by a book editor who happened
to hear me speak about my surgical career at Harvard Medical School. My
life in surgery has been a fortuitous blend of science and humanity. I chose
to attend a small liberal arts college, College of the Holy Cross, and con-
centrated on Latin, Greek, Philosophy, and English. Assuming I’d receive
ample science in medical school, I took the minimum of chemistry, physics
332 JOSEPH E. MURRAY
and biology. I entered Harvard Medical School expecting to return to my

hometown near Boston as a general surgeon. However, as Louis Pasteur
wrote, I was to find myself pulled into pure research through my applica-
tion of medical school knowledge:
No category of science exists to

which one could give the name of
applied science. There are sci-
ence and the application of sci-
ence, linked together as a fruit is
to the tree that has borne it.
Louis Pasteur
Science and plastic surgery entered my life when I helped care for Charles
Woods. Charles is a United States aviator who was 70% burned in a crash fly-
ing over the Himalayan Mountains between Burma and China. China was
then our ally against Japan. Charles was flown halfway around the world to
our army hospital in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Here is a slide showing
Charles today. He is 83 years old, the same age as I. (Slide 4, see page 382).
The next two slides show Charles as he was when he arrived at Valley
Forge Hospital. (Slide 5 and 6, see page 383).
You can see in this slide that we covered his open burns with skin taken
from other parts of his body. Charles went on to become a successful busi-
nessman. His family and mine have stayed quite close over the years, and I
still hear from them regularly.
While working at Valley Forge Hospital on patients including Charles
Woods, we often encountered the challenge of covering the burns with skin
to permit healing to take place. We sometimes used skin from cadavers, but
it was always eventually rejected. I became fascinated with this problem.
Thus began my two major surgical interests: plastic surgery, and trans-
plantation biology.
Along the way I have operated on many continents. In India I operated
on leprosy patients at the Christian Medical College in Vellore, correcting
hand and facial deformities. As with the battle casualties, it was the spirit
and the soul of these patients that carried them through their trials. The
patients were reconstructed and then taught to use their improved hands in
making saleable items. With their reconstructed hands they create hand-
SURGERY OF THE SOUL 333
made toys and other items including a wooden plaque bearing the motto
‘Difficulties Are Opportunities’. These patients’ functional hands give them
the chance for employment so that they did not have to go on begging for
a living. The sign sits on my desk as an inspiration, an example of the many
times that patients have enlarged me with their courage and faith.
As decades passed and surgery became more skilful and safer, we sur-
geons expanded the numbers of treatable conditions. Birth defects are a
good example. Here is a child born in the seventies with severe facial and
cranial distortion. (Slide 9, see page 384).
The parents were strongly advised to place him in an institution for
handicapped children in order to protect their five other ‘normal’ children.
After two years of weekly visits to the institution with no sign of improve-
ment, the parents took him home. This picture shows him as I first saw him
with his twin brother at age seven, after surgery performed elsewhere.
(Slide 10, see page 384).
We performed six craniofacial operations over five years to restore
some degree of facial, cranial, and orbital symmetry. He then entered the
public school system that his brother attended. Unbelievably, he graduated
with higher grades than his brother. (Slide 11, see page 385).
It is appropriate to mention during this occasion in Rome that Italy her-
self has made historical contributions to the field of plastic surgery.
Gaspare Tagliacozzi, 1545-1599, was practicing a form of plastic surgery
rebuilding the noses of those whose nose had been removed as punishment
for crime. Tagliacozzi also recognized quality of life as a reason for surgery:
We restore, repair and make whole those

parts of the body which nature has given
but which fortune has taken away, not so
much that they may delight the eye but
that they may buoy up the spirit and help
the mind of the afflicted.
Tagliacozzi, 1597
All surgeons around the world owe immense gratitude to the pioneer
surgeon, Paul Tessier, of Nantes and Paris, France, for showing us the way
to operate safely on the orbits and skulls to correct craniofacial deformities
in infants. This speciality of craniofacial surgery emerged after World War
II. The next three slides show a good example of the application of Dr.
Tessier’s innovative surgery in infants. (Slide 13, see page 386).
In slide 13 you can see the asymmetrical face and cranium, which we
studied carefully before performing surgery. I would take a picture of a
patient and cut it up into puzzle pieces, sliding them around to visualise
how the operation would proceed. Nowadays of course these preparations
are made with the aid of computers. (Slide 14, see page 386).
Slide 14 shows segments of the child’s skull which have been detached
from the head. These segments were reshaped on a side table before being
replaced. This reshaping of the cranium allows the skull to grow symmet-
rically larger under the influence of the growing brain. At the top of this pic-
ture, you can see the bone grafts taken from the child’s hip which were
inserted into the gaps left by this procedure. (Slide 15, see page 387).
Slide 15 shows the same child post-operatively, with his appearance and
skull size near-normal. In addition to observing improved post-operative
appearance, parents of our post-surgical craniofacial patients often com-
mented on improved behavior as well.
To proceed to another topic: Organ transplantation is one of the most
dramatic biological advances of the 20th century. ‘Spare parts surgery’ had
been dreamed of for centuries. Throughout our travels I sought out depic-
tions of the twin Saints Cosmos and Damian. (Slide 16, see page 388).
According to legend, Cosmos and Damian were physicians who success-
fully transplanted the limb of a dead Moor onto a patient whose leg required
amputation. It was almost as if fate had decreed that identical twins would
play a role in successful organ transplantation. You can see in this slide the
twin saints attaching the black leg to their lighter-skinned patient.
In the early 50’s, organ transplantation was considered an impossible
dream by practically everyone – except surgeons and physicians caring for
patients with severe burns or severe kidney disease. Drs. Barrett Brown and
Brad Cannon, Chiefs of Plastic Surgery at Valley Forge General Hospital,
had used skin from dead persons to temporarily replace skin in burn
patients. Nephrologists had experimented with hemodialysis as a tempo-
rary substitute for diseased kidneys. Brown had shown that skin exchanged
between identical twins could survive permanently. (Slide 17, see page 335).
In this slide you can see identical twins displaying the successful skin
grafts where a small patch of skin from the forearm has been transferred
to the other’s arm.
With the case of Charles Woods in mind, after the war I eagerly joined the
transplant team at Brigham Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.
Slide 17. Brown’s twins.
Soon I had developed a predictable operation for kidney transplants in dogs.

At the same time, hemodyalisis was first used at the Brigham. A patient was
referred for terminal renal failure who had an identical twin brother anxious
to donate one of his kidneys. We did go ahead with the transplant operation,
but only after serious consideration of the many ethical problems involved.
We met first with a number of doctors and clerics as well as with the family
members to discuss the concept. (Slide 18, see page 336).
This slide of this historical operation shows the transplantation team
preparing the sick twin to receive a kidney from the healthy twin, who is
being operated on in an adjoining operating room. Following five weeks of
excellent function of the transplanted kidney, we had a decision to make
about removal of the diseased kidneys. I favored removing the diseased kid-
neys immediately, while my colleague wanted to leave them in place as a
backup in case the transplant did not ‘take’, and with the hope that they
might recover. After discussing the situation with my superior, I bowed to
my colleague’s wishes, as he was the medical doctor in charge of managing
the renal disease. Later we learned that diseased kidneys should be
Slide 18. Intra-op photo of kidney transplant operation.
removed so they do not infect the transplanted one, but at the time we were
all doing what we thought was best. (Slide 19, see page 337).
Here are the young men leaving the hospital after the successful opera-
tion. The sick twin is in the wheelchair, which is being pushed by the donor
twin. The recipient lived for another seven years before dying of renal fail-
ure after he developed the original renal disease in the transplanted kidney.
Chief of surgery Dr. Francis Moore commented years later that as a
result of this accomplishment, the ethical assumption of physicians ‘to do
no harm’ would be forever challenged.
None of these advances could have occurred without the benefits of ani-
mal research. Our research lab, where we developed our transplantation
techniques, depended on the most careful care of our animals. They were
treated like royalty in every way. But even though we protected them to the
best of our ability, two of them managed to get together when Mona was in
heat, and she presented us with a healthy litter of pups as you can see in the
next slide. (Slide 21, see page 339).
This unexpected event proved fortunate, as we did not know whether
the immunosuppressive drugs would interfere with pregnancy, or whether
Slide 19. Twins leaving hospital.
they would lead to birth defects. Since then we have learned that neither is
the case, and there have been many successful pregnancies within the pop-
ulation of transplanted patients living on immunosuppressive drugs.
The success of this first twin transplant in 1954, followed by a suc-
cessful sibling transplant in 1959 and a similar successful transplant from
a cadaver in 1962, opened the door for worldwide transplantation.
INTERNATIONAL TRANSPLANT SURVIVAL RECORD

Longest surviving recipient with continuous function:
Kidney 31 years Heart 23 years

Kidney-Pancreas 13 years Heart-Lung 11 years
Pancreas 16 years Single Lung 8 years
Liver 24 years Double Lung 7 years
Bone Marrow 20 years
This table shows the longest survival times for kidney, heart, liver, kid-
ney-pancreas, bone marrow, heart-lung, single lung, and double lung trans-
plants. At the time that we were developing the kidney transplant operation
to benefit our patients with severe kidney disease, none of us had any idea
that these other transplantation surgeries would soon become possible.
The transplant story comes full circle in the next slide. (Slide 22, see
page 389).
Here we see a young man who has undergone a successful double hand
transplant holding in his transplanted hands a copy of my book, Surgery of
the Soul. Dr. Max Dubernard of Lyon, France sent me this slide recently, and
it certainly illustrates the far-reaching impact that our original research in
the dog lab and with identical twins has had in our culture. During my
career, research pursued in the care of patients has shaped the direction of
medicine and indeed has affected our society’s culture.
In closing, I would like to read excerpts from a patient highlighted in
my book.
The full benefits from plastic surgery are epitomized and encapsulat-
ed in the care of one extraordinary human being, Raymond McMillan.
Ray was born with severe facial deformity. With no control of his facial
muscles, he drooled constantly. His lips were blue and cyanotic. His
tongue hung out and his ears were only little blobs of tissue. He was diag-
nosed as Moebius Syndrome (a not uncommon congenital facial prob-
lem) and he also had a heart defect.
Ray had an exceptional spirit despite the physical and emotional hard-
ships he had endured since childhood. After spending the first five years of
his life with his mother, he was sent to live at the Wrentham State School
(Chapter 17), the same mental institution where Jimmy Hickey had been.
Slide 21. Mona and pups.
Ray survived the next 16 years there, and was released at the age of 21. One
year later, he was referred to us at the Brigham by either a local newspaper
editor or a parish priest.
Ray’s problems were so extensive that it was difficult for us to know
where to begin. After study, we decided to tackle his facial deformities first,
because it was his most visible and compelling problem, and also the most
easily repaired. At that time, in the late 1950s, cardiac surgery was non-exis-
tent; heart-lung pumps were still undergoing research development.
We started our reconstruction by dividing his lower jawbone into two
sections and repositioning each section so that he could close his mouth
and control his saliva. A few months later, we detached portions of what-
ever functional facial muscles he had, and reattached them to the corners
of his mouth. This gave Ray the ability to smile, albeit in a limited way,
for the first time.
Subsequently, we operated on his palate to help improve his speech
and made revisions to the shape of his nose. These moderate improve-
ments increased his self-esteem, another example of a slight physical

improvement being more beneficial than an onlooker – or even the sur-
geon – might expect.
By the next decade, cardiac surgery had progressed remarkably and.
Drs. John Collins and Larry Cohn were able to repair Ray’s heart, giving
him considerably more strength and stamina.
Ray lived alone and was self-sufficient. I helped him get a job in one of
the labs at the Dana-Farber and Children’s Hospitals and, on his way to or
from work, he frequently dropped by my office. I enjoyed these casual vis-
its and, during one of them, suggested he study for his high school equiva-
lency diploma. A few years later, he bounded into my office, waving his
diploma. I was deeply touched when he asked if I would keep it! I suppose
in some way I had become a father figure to him.
Later, I suggested he do some writing. Apparently he acted on my sug-
gestion. These excerpts from his unfinished memoir, uncovered after his
death in 1997, were written as Ray sat on a park bench in the Boston
Common. This is where George Washington took command of the
American troops and began training them for the American Revolution.
‘It is a beautiful day’, begins Ray’s memoir. ‘I have a wonderful free, serene
feeling just watching the people go by. I am writing this in the hope that it
might help someone today.
This story begins with despair and ends with hope. My name is
Raymond Francis McMillan and I was born in Malden, Massachusetts on
January 15, 1943. I spent my first five years with my mother, whom I never
really got to know.
Because of my deafness, malformed heart and facial deformity, my
mother and two social agents admitted me to the Wrentham State School.
The School is situated in the New England countryside thirty miles from
Boston. The oppressive Victorian buildings of a state hospital still stand,
symbol of a time when people abandoned those with whom they could or
would not deal. Historically, the hospital was the home of the unloved, the
indigent, the handicapped and the insane. It was the total world and experi-
ence to thousands of emotionally bereft people. The corridors echo with neg-
lect suffered and cruelties done. And the institution was more like a prison,
instead of a mental hospital. It was the antithesis of a nurturing environ-
ment; it was an unlikely place for me with my handicaps and I did indeed
survive! I survived because I was blessed with a beautiful intelligence,
humor and courage. Today I enjoy a normal life and a bright future.
While I was a resident at Wrentham State School, it took some time to get
used to because I was very young and I was scared, lost, lonely and confused.
My 16 years were a total nightmare and I wonder how I ever survived under
those conditions and still was able to keep my head on straight. I was no longer
wanted and I found it very difficult to live with the idea of being rejected by my
own mother and family because of heart, hearing, and facial malformation. My
family only visited me twice during my ordeal. My father came to visit me when
I was 12; my stepfather came to visit me five years later and I saw my mother
for the first time then. But that was the last time I saw either of them!
I got about four years of good education between 1959 and 1963. Of
course living at the School was an education in itself. Under the circum-
stances I did my very best but I did not graduate nor did anyone else. There
was no such thing as a high school diploma at a mental institution.
The people who were in charge at Wrentham State School did not think
or feel that I could make it on my own in the outside world because of my
handicaps and poor health. The longer I stayed at the institution the more
angry I got and I can’t count how many times I ran away from the place.
When I got caught I knew I was in trouble and after so many beatings it
became an everyday thing.
I was paroled (that’s the word they used in those days) in April, 1964 at
the age of 21. Boy was I glad to see that day come! I knew I had a long hill
to climb and it wasn’t easy at first but I was so happy to get out of the place
they call Wrentham State School that I never looked back! I was not in the
best of health but I was so excited to get out on my own for the first time. It
felt so good to be free!
“... to preserve freedom, we must begin with peace within ourselves and
then spread it to others. Freedom is not a store-bought commodity. There are
many ways freedom can be preserved, but with every freedom there is a
responsibility and with every right there is an obligation ...”. Vida Ivanouskas
On my first day on my own in the outside world, the weather was beauti-
ful. It was a Friday. My first stop was at the White Swan Motel where I was
to share a room with three other former residents of the Wrentham State
School. The next day I went out looking for an apartment because I wanted
total independence and wanted to be alone to prove to myself that I could
make it on my own and in the community. I became a dishwasher and salad
bar helper at the Lafayette House Restaurant.
My first year, 1964, was a very difficult year. I had trouble making the tran-
sition and I didn’t know to whom, where or how to go for help. I didn’t speak
English very well since I had very defective speech. It made it very difficult to
talk. Abraham Lincoln once said: “Most folks are about as happy as they make
up their minds to be”. You know, he was right! The following year, 1965, I
promised myself to be so strong that nothing could disturb my peace of mind.
To talk health and make all my friends feel that there is something in them. To
look on the sunny side of everything and make my optimism come true. To
forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the
future. To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and to have a smile ready
for every living creature I meet. To give so much time to the improvement of
myself that I have no time to criticize others. To be too large for worry, too
noble for anger, too strong for fear and too happy to permit the presence of
trouble. To think well of myself and to proclaim this fact to the world – not in
loud words but in great deeds. To live in the faith that the world is on my side
so long as I am true to the best that is in me.
That same year I had an appointment with Dr. Joseph E. Murray, a plas-
tic surgeon at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. He told me that he could
help me and make my life a lot easier to handle. As the years went by I con-
tinued to see Dr. Murray even until this day. Throughout 1965 I spent a great
deal of time as an outpatient. Four to six months was spent getting my jaw
ready and strengthened for my first operation in 1966. I didn’t know what to
expect of the outcome but I knew there was a lot of work to be done and that
I would have to be strong and have a lot of heart and to be brave and coura-
geous and to do what is right and to take responsibility for my own actions.
I expect nothing from the world but I realize that as I give to the world, the
world will give to me.
I had my first operation in 1966, and addition operations in 1967, 1968
and 1969. They could only do a little at a time because I had a weak heart.
Then in 1970 I went and had the open heart surgery and I was in the hos-
pital for about seven weeks. I can honestly say they did a wonderful job. The
surgery was performed by Dr. John Collins and Dr. Lawrence Cohn. I had
my last operation in 1977. In the meantime, I did a lot of reading as part of
my self education. I couldn’t read well or understand all that I was reading.
I kept on reading anyway!
Many people have severe facial deformities, either congenitally or as a
result of injury or disease. They do not look like other people and because they
are different, they are treated differently. They may even come to think of them-
selves as less than human. But beauty is not determined by a perfect figure
and features. It is determined by the way you respect and honor yourself.
I had a very difficult time with my handicap and sometimes I had to fight
with my fists. I had to fight to survive. Handicapped people are a part of our
society that are beaten down time and time again. But we are a strong-willed
and extremely proud people who desire no handouts, no charity and want
nothing more than the simple chance to support ourselves through our own
abilities. There are ups and downs and you can never be a quitter. There is a
reason for living! There is a reason for being here. And there is always a way.
No matter what you are going through, there is always a way’.
Raymond Francis McMillan
Ray died suddenly in 1997, seated in a car beside his best friend, on the
way to lunch at a favored restaurant. At his funeral, a circle of people far
beyond his hometown of Wrentham came to mourn his passing. Many
described Ray as a beloved friend. Jack Collins, Larry Cohn and I agree that
Ray was one of the most remarkable patients we have ever had the privi-
lege to care for. We feel fortunate to have known him.
The impact the hospital staff and I had on Ray’s life only partially
involved scalpels and sutures. Simply because we cared for him and
showed him compassion and basic human kindness, we gave him a feeling
of worth and helped heal his spirit. The greatest benefit we gave Ray was
not so much the freedom of facial muscles, but rather the freedom for his
inner self to glow and grow. The cosmetic improvements we made to his
exterior simply removed what had been a constant impediment to his daily
living. Surely this was a case of “surgery of the soul”.
24.Dallaporta 18-07-2003 15:01 Pagina 344
ANTHROPICAL COSMOLOGY AND PERSONAL THEOLOGY
NICOLA DALLAPORTA
If by ‘culture’ in its strongest meaning we understand the totality of

knowledge at any possible level contributing to the construction of a world
picture as extended and complete as possible, we should easily recognize
that such a picture must include all the domains of thought present in our
psychical being; and we instinctively feel the impulse to connect to each
other such domains in order to form a general coherent frame of reference
into which any viewpoint finds its adequate location. What I am propos-
ing here to present of such a vast frame is one of those possible connec-
tions, related on the one hand to science, as requested by the theme of this
conference, and on the other to one of the most conspicuous fields of inter-
nal investigation, for almost anybody I might venture. In fact the main cul-
tural and most valuable derivation yielded to me from science is its con-
tribution to the growing of my understanding beyond the sensible evi-
dence and the logical rationality. I will therefore try to show how, at least
on my personal account, the evolving picture of science during the decades
of my living time has gradually contributed to develop, extend and
increase my metaphysical and religious approach to reality.
We will try, above all, to update the view by which we can look at the
cosmos today.
The body of opinion has been, during the last few centuries, the pre-
ferred ground for the development of what, under the generic name ‘sci-
ence’, has been constructed as a body of self-convincing and autonomous
knowledge, according to an outlook which is essentially mechanistic.
Today however, after a long period in which determinism seemed to domi-
nate uncontested, a picture of the physical world is spreading more and
more, based both on the microscopic domain which is subject to quantum
mechanics, and on the so-called ‘deterministic chaos’ of complex systems;
ANTHROPICAL COSMOLOGY AND PERSONAL THEOLOGY 345
for both the exact predictability of physical phenomena, once considered

the essence of physics itself, seems, instead, to be a type of limited case that
acts as an excellent approximation only in very simple problems which are
defined by a small number of variables; whereas real situations range from
sets of molecules to galaxies of stars. It is such complications that make it
practically inconceivable to analyse them in detail. Complications of this
genre have become the daily bread of all that which goes under the name
of complexity, from fluid dynamics to multi-molecular structures which are
present in every aspect of biology. Consequently, the general explanatory
picture of the physical world is gradually moving away from the idea of
exact predictability of the future, which inevitably follows from detailed
knowledge of a given initial situation, towards an unpredictability, which
generally increases as the length of time increases. Therefore the prospec-
tive of ‘total necessity’, inherent in the Galilean laws of physics, was
inevitably overlapped by a zone of growing cognitive indeterminability,
which made the future less and less predictable.
Independently of the preceding developments the fundamental idea itself
of strict causal deduction of one physical phenomenon from another, also
found itself confronting an interpretative difficulty because the situations
under consideration had become complicated. If, already, an excessive num-
ber of variables, as for example the total of the coordinates and momenta of
the component particles of a gas, had asked, in dealing with it, recourse to
purely statistical considerations, a heterogeneous system, formed by chains
of diverse atoms, which one meets in macromolecular chemistry, seems to
make almost obligatory a vision in which one can only deal with by simpli-
fying and appealing to ‘randomness’. It is on ‘chance’ in fact that the
Darwinist vision of biology is founded. Now, instead, various researchers, on
the basis of the most recent scientific results, are realising how biological
experimentation is bringing to light the insufficiencies of Darwinism in
explaining several of paleontology’s fundamental data. Without going into
detail, it is enough to specify that the attribution, due to pure chance, of the
meeting between various biological molecular groups would require a peri-
od of time billions of times longer than the life of the universe; therefore the
state of our earth would constitute, in itself, a type of ‘miracle’, accomplished
once and for all, in spite of all predictable probability.
If the concurrence of billions of micro-causes between the constituent
atoms and molecules, over a period of time billions of times longer than the
life of the universe, is required in order to form any portion of living sub-
stance, it appears clear how, in order to deal with the physically ‘complex’
346 NICOLA DALLAPORTA
situations, it is opportune to devise new ways of thinking: first, that of over-

turning the sense of time, and instead of starting from the antecedent of the
past, fix instead on the future, and therefore on the ‘ends’ which can be
accomplished for any phenomenon. Physically speaking, the symmetry
between past and future is an integral part of a four-dimensional vision: it
is only the unidirectional flow of time which, for the human mind and life,
differentiates it in such a large manner. Precisely for this reason, one would
maybe expect that, with the polarization on the future, our intelligence
could enter into a new perspective, complementary and integrating with
that, which up to now, was confined to science.
That expectation, as is well known, has been encouraged by biology: if
the large variety of micro-causes which play between the molecules makes
a decipherable analysis of their reciprocal interactions extremely difficult,
the final destination for which this complexity aims, comes together in a set
of relatively simple properties, which summarise the objectives and the way
that this complexity ‘lives’, that is eats, drinks, breathes, mates, reproduces;
otherwise, it gives way to certain functions un-analysable in their micro-
scopic detail, but it is the ‘total behaviour’ which forms that which consti-
tutes a plant, an animal, a living being. For this the biological morphology,
in its complexity, is much better described by this set of ‘finalist’ properties
than by the unreachable multiplicity of the sets of micro-causes.
For this reason, from the view of the beings, it seems a general directive
has almost emerged that alternates from the complementary prospective of
‘causalism’ on the one hand, ‘finalism’ on the other; in situations which are
physically ‘simple’ the first is undisputed, whereas in those which are com-
plex the latter is prevalent. This explains why, in the physics of Galilean
phenomena only causality seemed necessary to explain the connection
between these phenomena, whereas for those which, plausibly, are central
to the biological structure, it is the ‘finalism’ view which, maybe, better cap-
tures the sense which we try to find in the panorama which surrounds us
and in what we are. The complicated pass from the physics view to that of
biology, is the crucial point which, to be understood, probably requires the
superimposition of the two views, key to the unifying approach to that
which is unexplainable around us and in us.
Does there exist maybe, today, some field within which it seems that
this type of superimposition occurs? We think that there is, and consists
of that set of data which goes under the name of ‘anthropic observations’.
Without going into too much detail, we will satisfy ourselves by empha-
sising how this perspective originates, in the ambit of physics itself, not
with the usual question of ‘how?’ a certain phenomenon occurs, but

‘why?’ it happens.
As is well known, the general laws of physics depend on a certain num-
ber of fundamental constants – such as the speed of light, Plank’s constant,
electron mass and charge, intensity of various types of forces and so on –
which we take for that which they are; and we observe that, by these micro-
laws, complex, physical structure results as being capable of becoming the
receptacle of life. It can easily be verified that if certain of these fundamen-
tal constants are changed by a few percent of their actual value, the physical
substrate which leads to living beings would not have been realized in the
universe. We do not intend to go over the reasons which lead to these obser-
vations here and are, in general, well known in scientific circles, in the strict
sense of the word. Here we limit ourselves by assuming that such anthropi-
cal observations are a given fact and deduce the likely consequences.
To try to reduce to a purely ‘casual’ coincidence this unforeseen and
sometimes very precise correlation between values of the fundamental laws
of physics and the beginning of life, the so-called theory of the ‘infinite uni-
verses’ was created, in which each of these universes is equipped with one of
this infinite combinations of all the possible values of the fundamental con-
stants. It is then clear that, for almost all their entirety, the constants chosen
by chance are inadequate to allow life to establish itself; this is possible only
where the constants are correct, as therefore in our universe – and in few
others. Nothing wonderful, then, about such a correlation between the fun-
damental laws and life; such is the explanation with the ‘casual’ presence of
the infinite universes in the basic structure of the cosmos.
Why then, the invention of such a complicated theory with infinite uni-
verses of which, as far as I am aware, we don’t have any indication in exper-
imental observation? It is, therefore, to escape a metaphysical implication
which could link the beginning of life with a ‘preordained plan’ chosen
before the fundamental laws, and to escape in this way from having to pos-
tulate a non-casual nature of the cosmos and mankind.
It is worth noting that this objective contradicts itself right from the
beginning: there would be nothing to say against the hypothesis in itself, if
not for the fact that it is often viewed as a ‘physical’ hypothesis, whereas it
is a purely ‘metaphysical’ model. To be ‘physical’ these infinite universes
would have to be observable by us in some way: but since until now noth-
ing has been seen, it is pure hypothesis in a field which has nothing in com-
mon with experimental science. Therefore, to avoid the metaphysical inter-
ference of a ‘prior plan’ that foresaw the beginning of life in the cosmos, and
therefore a ‘Designer’, scientism has invented an alternative hypothesis; but

nevertheless it is metaphysical: this the only approach of the ‘infinite uni-
verses’ theory. The conclusion is in the fact that the anthropical observa-
tions cannot be explained with only physical arguments: and so a meta-
physical finality which cannot be renounced emerges with the following
inversion: if the laws of physics permit the passing from microphysics to
that of the living structures, it does not appear to be prohibited to think that
the microphysical world was chosen as such, so that it could derive the
structure suitable to sustain life.
Naturally, such a proposal goes beyond the scientific views of anthrop-
ical observations: it transforms them into an anthropical principle, which
is taking its place in the field of not physical but metaphysical cosmology.
It is clear then that, scientifically speaking, nothing is prohibited, to those
who want to adhere to the scientism view, appealing to the metaphysics of
the ‘infinite universes’, as the experimental field, based on empiricism and
reason, does not contain anything in itself which can supply clues about the
true metaphysical. But if I, in so much as I am a man, spontaneously feel a
need to adopt one or other metaphysics, I do not feel any hesitation in
declaring my personal conviction that the anthropic view, that is the inten-
tional primordiality of the project ‘man’ in the cosmos, assumed as a prin-
ciple of cosmology, seems immensely more likely and convincing than that
of the ‘infinite universes’: above all because of the role of exception that is
attributed to life in the economy of the universe; and for this reason, as now
we will try to acknowledge, not only to the physical nature, but also to the
metaphysical in man.
If the majority of the conditions which allow the creation of biological
beings in the cosmos refer to how to make the substrate of purely bodily life
– which may be sufficient for inferior life-forms – much less, and in a less
precise way, is to be said for those necessary to create the psychic level; and
even less for a spiritual being; for the prevailing opinion is that we still
know very little about the relationships between body, psyche and spirit. In
spite of this, the fact that the name ‘anthropic’ is given to the above-men-
tioned observations demonstrates that the deep reason for our interest in
this is, not only that they join the cosmos with life, but above all, because
they form the first steps towards linking the cosmos with human life.
And what allows us to arrive at the creation of man? Not only a very
long period of evolution, but more than anything else that, in the sequence
of biological forms of more and more complex molecular structures, a
point of stoppage is inserted to a given structure, that stamps a unique hall-
mark, special, foreseen in all the great religious traditions and expressed
succinctly in the Bible: man as ‘the image of God’.
We will certainly not try to comment on this biblical definition. We are
convinced that any human babbling cannot dim the implications. And if
therefore, despite its total incomprehensibility, we are now pushed to men-
tion it, it is because we find it accomplished in us, on this earth, and are
pushed to the following conclusions. If man appeared in the cosmos, and if
the corporeity of this terrestrial world is controlled by the laws of physics,
the obvious suspicion arises that it was foreseen that this cosmos must bring
man into being. And if such correlations exist, why can’t they be more dras-
tically confirmed? That is if the laws of physics are exactly as they are, it was
to allow the physical world to be a substrate suitable for the creation of man.
In such a perspective, man appears then to be the end for which God creat-
ed the world and man becomes the destination of the whole of creation.
If, in the field of physics, we believe that one can go further forward
only with difficulty, there is nothing to prohibit us from taking further
steps forward in the realms of metaphysics, which can, and in fact must,
encourage the reconciliation of the apparently distant levels, but con-
verging in a synthesizing picture which encloses them. If man, as ‘the
image of God’, can be considered the ultimate purpose of the creation, is
it not, maybe so, that in creation there would be a being which as ‘the
truthful image’, would be suitable to host God himself the day in which
He wanted to manifest himself directly to the world, not in His transcen-
dence, but in a form accessible to the eyes and the human senses? For this
reason the anthropic vision of the cosmos is really that which, leaving us
to glimpse a structure suitable for the Incarnation, lends itself, better than
all others, to support a metaphysically Christ-centred view. This reflec-
tion, it seems, aims to prepare for the bringing together of the two per-
spectives mentioned in the title of this paper. And from this point on, I
cannot do other than emphasise that which for me constitutes the true
metaphysics, with all due respect for the different opinions that many
may have regarding this. If indeed the view of the cosmos was modified
by the moving from the interests of the field of physics to those of biolo-
gy and therefore human, a shift in a certain corresponding way, must
obviously plausibly result in the centrality of the metaphysical, which
moves us from a prevalently impersonal view to that which highlights
some other Aspect of the Infinity of the Supreme Origin itself.
Maybe the metaphysical, which seems to lend itself better to a compar-
ison bringing together how, in the western view of the cosmos, ‘nature’ was
intended, is the dominant Entity of the Hindu metaphysics ‘Brahma nirgu-

na’, totally boundless and indeterminable, of which it cannot even be said
to be ‘One’ but rather ‘non-dual’, because even the idea of ‘Unity’ would be
too restrictive; and less often is ‘Brahma saguna’ referred to, the divine
Aspect defined as Being, whose relationship with creation is ‘personal’,
essentially tied to man.
Now this personal Aspect of God, secondary in India, is the prevailing
conclusion from when the central point of the divine Attention moves
towards Syria and Palestine to manifest itself to Abraham. And it is from
this moment that the history of the personal God is given prominence, the
protagonist in the events which will happen in the Occidental theatre, leav-
ing the divine Impersonality in the metaphysical background.
It needs to be immediately noted how this passage, in the view of man,
is fulfilled by various centuries, and perhaps a millennium, before any
grasp of understanding of the physical field of our world. Therefore, when
at the beginning of the 17th century, the experimentation and rationaliza-
tion of Galileo and Descartes established the scientific view, the separation
between the metaphysical-religious point of view and that of the physical-
scientific was all but complete, to the extent of a practically total split in the
19th century between metaphysics based on the God-person and a physics
which obeys the Impersonality of the laws of physics.
This is, in my opinion, the origin of the absurdity that has run rampant
for at least three centuries in western culture about the incompatibility
between science and religion. I have tried in various occasions to demon-
strate that such an incompatibility does not exist and I have generally done
so making a comparison between the physical view of the world and the
impersonal view of God from the Hindu point of view.
But if now the main body of opinion in the world tends to shift more
and more from the physical towards the biological, and centres itself on
man, it will appear natural to spiritually jump on the related metaphysical
step, for which, from Abraham’s Revelation onwards, the divine Personality
emerges from the ‘Impersonality’, dominant until now, to appear like a new
protagonist. And how is it that such a divine Personality manifests himself
if not through the word of the Sent, of Messengers, of the Prophets, of the
‘Avatara’ to use a Hindu word, human Spokespersons who speak of what
surpasses the man, but which only in man is reflected and takes voice. In
this way, by a double movement reciprocally inverse to the perspectives,
physics on the one hand and metaphysics on the other, both tending to
unity in man, notwithstanding his apparent cosmic insignificance, who
finds himself to be the element in which the creation is summarized, cho-

sen as a support and as the conclusive element in successive theophanies in
which the Divinity is revealed all along the whole of the creation events.
As it follows naturally I would now like to demonstrate, not only how
man’s role corresponds to the specifically Christian view, but that, in a cer-
tain sense, it is its most immediate accomplishment; not contenting our-
selves, of course, with the superficial but diving into the deepest theologi-
cal doctrine which today is most explicitly expressed in its fundamental
centre which is intact and complete in the Eastern Church, in Orthodoxy.
In fact, the Truths on which the present Orthodox Church is founded
are, in their totality, the fruit of the first seven Great Ecumenical Councils
held at Constantinople or in the Middle East prior to 1054. Now before
that year the schism between the Eastern and the Western Church still
had not happened. The significance of this is that this Truth was not only
typical of the Eastern Church but represented the belief of the whole
Christian Church. And even if, with the addition of the famous ‘Filioque’
the Roman Church broke away from Orthodoxy, it is a fact that the doc-
trine that was to be discussed there, which was before the schism, was at
the basis of the two churches. And if the Western Church, because of var-
ious events in its history, made revisions which moved it away from cer-
tain aspects of its origins, the fact remains that these basic aspects, even
if they are often neglected or toned down in different ways, are still inher-
ent in its belief. The significance of which is that we are induced to eval-
uate the observations which here we will develop not as a focus on the
characteristics of Orthodoxy but as the hidden centre, also when not
explicit, of almost the totality of original Christianity itself.
I must for various reasons, limit myself to touching on only three essen-
tial points that I have in mind and do so in such a way as to emphasise both
that which is shared and that which particularity distinguishes the
Christian view from the other great traditions. On this premise of intent, it
is necessary to start, for each of the points to be considered of the exempli-
fied metaphysics, from the formalization of Hinduism, in order to reveal
that which precisely defines the exceptionality of the Christian view.
First of all we will consider the relationship between the transcendent
and immanent aspects of the Deity in both traditions. The absolute Reality,
whatever it may be, is enveloped in all the wrappings of Maya, the cosmic
illusion, which can be represented as a series of veils of varying thickness
hiding one behind the other until finally the ultimate Reality appears. In
the case where a veil is sufficiently transparent and part of the divine light
manages to shine through it, this makes us feel God as immanent in the
whole of creation. But when the veils are thick and block all the signals
behind them, this then is God as an inaccessible part of the cosmos and
seems to be transcendent and totally unknowable in comparison to the
weaknesses of humans means.
Now, even if the image of the veils isn’t taken up in the ancient Christian
tradition, this in itself is not enough not to make use of a symbol which,
nevertheless, allows an equivalent type of deduction, as explicitly con-
firmed by many Fathers of the Church: the distinction, in the divine Nature
itself, between that which forms the Essence and that which manifests itself
as its Energies. And if the first, the Essence, is in itself unknowable and
incommunicable, it is not the same for the Energies. In fact a religion, to
be such, cannot only consist of a theology in the abstract which counters
the Creator with the created. Its ultimate end cannot be but a road, that
which takes us from the existing state upwards, approaching the One who,
unknowable in himself, must leave us to discern from some signs which
reveal, to those who seek them, the right direction to travel along. Given
that the Essence of God is inaccessible and impenetrable to man, it is nec-
essary to direct him to the correct path which, in some way, God commu-
nicates, always in Himself, but outside His inaccessible Essence, through
the Energies or divine Operations which are an intrinsic part of His uncre-
ated Nature, but which allow Him to proceed towards the external, to be
communicated, to give of Himself. And this independently from whatever
His surroundings, also in the absence of creation and even before the cre-
ation, God, in His incommunicable Essence manifests himself, neverthe-
less, through the irradiation of His Energies.
Thus we recognise that God is, as for India, immanent and at the same
transcendent, totally transcendent in his incommunicable Essence and
immanent in the cosmos through His continuous interventions with the
multi-form Energies.
The first large distinction in the area of the non-created Nature of God
which we have now mentioned between the Essence and the divine
Energies, gives us the answer to another point regarding the nature and
the role of the Sent or the Lord’s Messengers. All of these, according to
their own tradition, are bearers of the Word of God and, in some way, are
sharers of a certain ‘something’ inherent in the divine Nature itself. If the
Sent announces even only ‘something’ of such a Nature, the question
immediately arises as to what depth of the divine Nature this ‘something’
must be related. The answer does not seem in doubt, the function of the
Sent, at whatever level he places himself, is that of demonstrating to the

world this ‘something’. He is therefore part of the divine Nature which is
made known, which irradiates, which erupts out of Himself, he is part of
the divine Energies, the Saints, the Prophets, the Sent and the Avatara
demonstrate him in their profound essence, they are the irradiation rays
of the Lord’s Nature.
The third point that I wish to consider is in itself the decisive approach
for an adequate evaluation of the role of Christ with respect to all the other
great traditions. And this decisive point concerns that which until now was
mentioned with a single word; the ‘unknowable’, as regards the Essence of
the Deity, which we will try now to explain as far as possible.
Generally, a metaphysical system which wishes to represent the entire
cosmos, gradually spreads in manifestation from the top down through
the various levels, first informal (non-representational), then psychic for-
mal and finally bodily formal, and the different steps little by little make
our understanding of the premise more specific and detailed. For this rea-
son it is a ‘positive’ theology called ‘cataphatic’ in that every level reached
contributes to a better explanation of what was contained in the cause
which produces it. Therefore, going back to the Principle, it becomes more
and more specific and detailed from the body of knowledge which derives
from Him, knowledge however which is incomplete or imperfect in that
the infinite God can never be reduced to a finite sum no matter how large.
On the contrary in the Hindu metaphysical view, one does not come close
to God with that which He is, instead one stresses that which He is not,
not body, not physic, not spirit, not intellect, he is above and beyond the
Being itself. Given that any positive title acts as a restriction of His Nature,
the only way to describe Him is in the use of negative epithets such as
Unlimited, Infinite, Immeasurable, Unknowable, Uncontainable, and so
on. Such a theology called ‘apophatic’ which goes from the bottom up,
always less defined and comprehensible, cannot do other than lead to a
total Unknowability of the divine Essence and His total transcendence
with respect to every aspect of the created, the only fundamental certain-
ty which human beings can arrive at.
Now if in India the denial of the duality constitutes the main way to try
to see that which is unseeable in itself, this same denial of the ‘dual’, which
separates and divides, is that which best marks out the Christian tradition.
The denial of the ‘two’ expresses itself here, however, with the affirmation
of the Three, that general symbol of how much it goes beyond every possi-
ble separation. Orthodoxy, today, and therefore all of ancient Christianity,
saw in the Trinity of God the same symbol of the divine unknowability
which the Indian sees as non-duality.1 The same incomprehensibility and
elusivity for India is the non-duality of Brahma, the same incomprehensi-
bility and elusivity for us are the Trinitarian Characteristics of God, a sin-
gle Nature but Three persons, an incomprehensible mystery in itself,
uniquely revealed to us which is explicitly confirmed in the Scriptures, con-
cerning the coming of the Son from the Father and of the procession of the
Spirit from the Father: in this way the Unity is included in the Triplicity,
and the Triplicity itself gives the Unity a structure in which the One is Three
and at the same time the Three reduces to the One.
The contrast between the two ways, ‘cataphatic’ and ‘apophatic’, is
clearly found around the fifth century after Christ in the treatise about mys-
tic Theology by Dionysius the Areopagite. It is from him that, within
Christianity, the categorical affirmation comes that the main way to
attempt to ascend to God is the negative ‘apophatic’, the unbreakable prem-
ise is the unknowability of God. If God is unknowable, all that we perceive
or know acts as a screen or obstacle in approaching Him. Therefore every
layer, visual, sentimental, intellectual must be stripped away in order to rise
up into the unknown and gradually penetrate the divine Mystery.
The best example of this is Moses climbing up Mount Sinai leaving
behind the camp, the men and even the priests to penetrate alone the
mysterious Unknowability of the Deity with whom he speaks but whom
he does not see.
The affirmation of the ‘apophatic’ method, inaugurated by the writ-
ings of Dionysus, was then adopted by most of Christianity by all the
important theologians, above all from the Byzantine, Sinai and Greek
areas, such as Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory Palamas, to surface in the
field of philosophy and mysticism in Western Christianity, from John
Scottus Eriugena up to Eckhart. There can be no doubt, regarding the
spiritual realization, that the ancient contemplations of India found their
natural successor in early Christianity.
Moreover the analogy can be inverted. If this was thought to be an ele-
ment in favour of the efficiency and the universality of Hinduism to direct
man who aspires to know God, well cannot one also turn the parallel upside
down, and to discern in the Hindu meditative practices an anticipation of
some centuries which later will become the oldest and most authentic of
Christian practice to open the road which leads to God?
1
See V. Lossky, Thèologie mystique de l’Eglise d’Orient, Chapter III.
I certainly do not have the ability, beyond these inadequate words, to go

deeply into the examination of what is inexpressible in itself and of which
others, with much better competence, have let us glimpse some tracks.
Therefore, I believe the point has been reached which makes clear the
intention of this contribution: to accentuate the essential role of man in
the cosmos both from physics on the one hand and metaphysics on the
other. It seems to me that such an accentuation assumes a level of impor-
tance which is different according to the perspective with which each of
us sees the world.
Those who limit their interest only to the physical field can omit all of
the second part of this paper and concentrate their attention on how the
physical world can reveal to us the role of man.
Those who, and under whatever form, be it religious or philosophical,
feel again the presence of God in the cosmos, would recognise in the pres-
ent considerations that specific metaphysical vision which corresponds to
their faith.
Finally whoever adheres to Christianity finds that Father, Son and
Paraclete are taken for their intrinsic Reality, whose setting, within the
framework we have just discussed, places them in the Unknowability of the
divine Essence, and would be themselves inexpressible and elusive, had not
the Person of the Son, in himself unconceivable and unreachable, for a
unique event in history, wanted to become incarnate in human form. And
because the uniqueness of this event breaks the line of all the other great
Sent, expressions of the Divine Energies, He came to create a unique and
unrepeatable fact, since He who in this manifested and revealed himself is,
nevertheless, the Un-revealable and Un-manifestable Himself.
This in our opinion, is the true exceptionality of Christianity: not only
the Trinitarian view, the distinction of the three Persons, Father, Son and
Holy Spirit, which – not being remotely imaginable for the human mind if
not through the anthropomorphic models, and thus of all unreal – is none
other than an expression, as already said, of the total unknowability of the
Divine Essence; but that this unknowable mystery manifested itself in a
human being and therefore subject to all the events in life.
One may not accept it; but if one does accept it, then the manifestation
of Christ cannot do other than differentiate it from all the other great Sent,
even if nothing is taken away from the full validity of the other Revelations
into which He frames in, and summarises them in Himself.
The choice, between the two options, does not happen, in my opinion,
at a rational level: it is a question of internal adherence, of direct intu-
ition, of faith and therefore of environment. No one is better than anoth-

er for having made a given choice; whether one adheres to a particular
philosophy, or to one of the divine Energies, or whether one points direct-
ly to the Essence, it is always the climb towards God which is looked for,
both by all the believers on the earth and sometimes also by those who do
not directly think about it.
I have thought that, if the development and fine tuning of the situation
in the various sciences constitutes the main objective of an Academy such
as ours, its most refined quality of being ‘pontifical’ should suggest not to
overlook the connections of sciences that constitute the metaphysical back-
ground on which, to my mind, even the objectivity of the world is rooted.
This is why I have ventured to present this perhaps too personal contribu-
tion; although such a precise focalisation is not frequently practised, I am
induced to think that its happening from time to time might not constitute,
even for those with completely different views on the subject, an inadequate
occasion of reflection for meetings as the present one.
25.Hide 18-07-2003 15:01 Pagina 357
A NOTE ON ASPECTS OF CLASSICAL PHYSICS

IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
RAYMOND HIDE
Preamble
If ‘culture’ is the general state of intellectual development in society as a

whole then ‘science’ is an important and distinctive component of culture.
Herein must surely lie the main cultural value of science, the subject with
which this meeting of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences is concerned.
A systematic way of dealing with experience, science is [1] ‘the creation
of the human mind, with its freely invented ideas and concepts.
– (Scientific theories) try to form a picture of reality and establish its
connection with the wide world of sense impressions.
– (Thus) we find our way through a maze of observed facts, to order and
understand the world of sense impressions.
– (Without) this belief in the inner harmony of the world there would
be no science’.
But the scientist is no stranger to ignorance and doubt [2], ‘being fully
aware that scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees
of certainty – some most unsure, some nearly sure, but none absolutely
certain. Great (scientific) progress comes from a satisfactory philosophy
of ignorance’.
Science swallows its past! Unlike all other forms of knowledge, scien-
tific knowledge is such that [3] ‘the insights of the past are digested and
incorporated into the present in the same way that the genetic material of
our ancestors is incorporated into the fabric of our body’. No person now
alive [4] ‘could understand Shakespearean experience better than
Shakespeare (himself), whereas (within the foreseeable future) any decent
eighteen-year-old student of physics will know more physics than Newton’.
25.Hide 18-07-2003 15:01 Pagina 358
358 RAYMOND HIDE
Science [5] ‘makes great demands on the purely cognitive side of

human nature, (but) it also speaks to the affective side. To achieve a signif-
icant advance in science makes just as great a demand on the intellect,
imagination and personality as does the work of creative writers, poets,
painters, sculptors and composers’.
Aspects of Classical Physics
Physics is the scientific discipline that is concerned with matter and

energy and their interactions. Possibly the most stupendous development
ever to have occurred in science was the rise of modern physics in the twen-
tieth century [6]. Less impressive though still very significant were con-
comitant advances in most areas of classical physics, which is based on
laws applicable to processes on length scales and time scales where both
quantum and relativistic effects are negligible.
These laws are concerned with (i) forces and their relation primarily to
the motion of bodies of matter (‘dynamics’), (ii) relations between heat and
other (e.g. mechanical, electrical) forms of energy (‘thermodynamics’), and
(iii) the effects arising from the interactions of electric currents with mag-
nets, with other currents, or with themselves (‘electrodynamics’).
The laws were well established by the end of the nineteenth century,
but, to paraphrase a prescient warning issued by Maxwell three decades
earlier at a meeting arranged to discuss the problem of free will [7], the tra-
ditional preoccupation of physicists and applied mathematicians with phe-
nomena that are simple, stable and insensitive to boundary conditions and
initial conditions had created over-confidence in the ‘all-encompassing
influence of the laws of Nature’. Thus, knowing that the general circulation
of the gaseous atmosphere of the Earth under the influence of differential
solar heating must be governed by the laws of dynamics and thermody-
namics, and emboldened by the success of physicists in establishing these
laws, one leading scientist when asked in the year 1900 to predict likely
developments over the next half-century was rash enough to suggest that
little more than routine efforts by meteorologists trained in physics and
mathematics would soon lead to highly accurate weather forecasts!
Evidently unaware of Maxwell’s warning he clearly overlooked the serious
mathematical difficulties which still beset physicists and engineers in their
attempts to apply the laws to real systems [8-14].
These difficulties are especially severe in theoretical research on turbu-
lent fluid flows and other complex processes encountered in the study of
25.Hide 18-07-2003 15:01 Pagina 359
A NOTE ON ASPECTS OF CLASSICAL PHYSICS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 359
continuous media. The governing partial differential equations in terms of

which the physical laws are expressed mathematically certainly provide
valuable theorems and other useful diagnostic relationships between key
variables. But the essential nonlinearity of the equations makes them vir-
tually impossible to apply directly in most prognostic work, where all the
multiple solutions of the equations would have to be found and their sta-
bility thoroughly investigated.
Classical physics understandably declined in popularity as modern
physics advanced, although some talented practitioners pursued fruitful
careers in the subject [15]. Others kept a foot in both camps, at least to start
with, including scientists of the calibre of Heisenberg whose well-known
contributions to the theory of stability of parallel shear flow and turbulence
in fluids [16, 15] were outshone by his great work in quantum mechanics
[6]. With many new problems to be tackled in modern physics there was no
strong temptation to spend time seeking explanations of natural phenome-
na such as the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Red Spot
in Jupiter’s atmosphere. And other phenomena now investigated under the
heading of ‘geophysical and astrophysical fluid dynamics’ such as the mag-
netism of the Earth and the corona of the Sun would remain enigmatic
until pioneering work by Alfvén and others [17, 18] had created the new
subject of ‘magnetohydrodynamics’ (MHD).
MHD involves the application of all the laws of classical physics, for the
(pre-Maxwell) equations of electrodynamics are also needed when treating
the flow of an electrically-conducting fluid. Much material in the cosmos is
both fluid and electrically conducting and on the scale of cosmical systems
MHD phenomena abound. But most underlying processes are impossible
to reproduce on the very much smaller scale of the terrestrial laboratory,
owing mainly to the difficulty with available fluids of achieving high
enough values of the ‘magnetic Reynolds number’ ULµσ (where U is a char-
acteristic flow speed, L a typical length, µ the magnetic permeability of the
fluid and σ its electrical conductivity). Significantly, this obstacle to
progress is now being overcome to some extent by the increasing use of
powerful computers for integrating the governing equations.
Computational fluid dynamicists strive for breakthroughs in under-
standing turbulence and other fundamental processes characteristically
involving many different length scales and time scales [19]. As in laborato-
ry studies, basic general theorems and dimensionless parameters play a
central role in the formulation of crucial investigations and the interpreta-
tion and application of experimental results. Dimensionless parameters
25.Hide 18-07-2003 15:01 Pagina 360
360 RAYMOND HIDE
(such as the magnetic Reynolds number) are readily identified by express-

ing the governing equations in dimensionless form, but their successful use
is less straightforward and remains something of an art [20].
Fortunately, experience shows that it is not always necessary or even
desirable to insist on complete geometric and dynamic (and, where
appropriate, thermodynamic and electrodynamic) similarity. We now see,
for instance, albeit with twenty-twenty hindsight, that if physicists in the
late nineteenth century and early twentieth century had made simple but
systematic ‘curiosity-driven’ laboratory investigations of flow phenomena
in spinning fluids, unexpected dynamical processes, including determin-
istic chaos, of direct relevance in meteorology, oceanography and other
areas of science and engineering would have been discovered much soon-
er [12]. Whilst it is impossible in the laboratory to simulate a planetary
atmosphere in all its details, much of our knowledge of fully developed
‘sloping convection’ – a process which underlies many natural phenome-
na such as highly irregular waves and jet streams seen in the Earth’s
atmosphere and the more regular large and durable eddies in the atmos-
pheres of the major planets – comes from laboratory experiments on ther-
mal convection in rotating cylindrical (rather than spherical) fluid sys-
tems no more than several centimeters in size. These were eventually
started half a century ago, long before computers became powerful
enough to play a significant role in such research.
At the beginning of the twenty-first century we can be sure that all
branches of science will continue to benefit from improving computer
technology [19] and fundamental advances in mathematics [10]. But in
forecasting detailed future developments scientists in the past have
shown little more than modest skill [21], even with the benefit of fasci-
nating insights provided by the imaginations of non-scientific colleagues.
We can look forward to many surprises.
REFERENCES
[1] Einstein, A. & Infeld, L., The evolution of physics, (re-issue of 1961 sec-
ond edition), Cambridge University Press. (1971).
[2] Feynman, R., What do you care what other people think?, Bantam
Books, New York (1989).
[3] Burstyn, H.L., ‘Tradition and understanding’, School and society,
(November 1969).
25.Hide 18-07-2003 15:01 Pagina 361
A NOTE ON ASPECTS OF CLASSICAL PHYSICS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 361
[4] Snow, C.P., ‘The case of Leavis and the serious case’, pp. 81-97 in Public
affairs, Macmillan, London (1971).
[5] Dainton, F., Doubts and certainties, Sheffield Academic Press (2001).
[6] Brown, L., Pais, A. & Pippard, B. (eds.), Twentieth century physics
(three volumes), Institute of Physics, Bristol (1995).
[7] Barrow, J.D., Theories of everything, Oxford University Press (1990).
[8] Poincaré, H., Les méthodes nouvelles de la mécanique celeste, Gauthier-
Villars, Paris (1892).
[9] Lighthill, J., ‘The recently recognized failure of predictability in
Newtonian dynamics’, pp. 35-50 in Predictability in science and society,
(eds. Mason, J., Mathias, P. & Wescott, J.H.), Cambridge University
Press (1986).
[10] Arnold, V., Atiyah, M., Lax, P. & Mazur, B. (eds.), Mathematics: Frontiers
and perspectives, American Mathematical Society (2000).
[11] Sussman, G.T. & Wisdom, J., Structure and interpretation of classical
mechanics, M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts (2001).
[12] Lorenz, E.N., The essence of chaos, University of Washington Press
(1993).
[13] Bjerknes, V., Bjerknes, J., Solberg, H. & Bergeron, T., Hydrodynamique
physique avec application à la météorologie dynamique, Les Presses
Universitaires, Paris (1934).
[14] Norbury, J. & Roulstone, I. (eds.), Large-scale atmosphere-ocean dynam-
ics: Analytical methods (vol. 1); Geometric methods and models (vol. 2),
Cambridge University Press (2002).
[15] Batchelor, G.K., The life and legacy of G.I. Taylor, Cambridge University
Press (1996).
[16] Heisenberg, W., ‘Über Stabilität und Turbulenz von Flussigkeitsströmung’,
Ann. Phys. Lpz. (4) 74, 577-627 (1924).
[17] Alfvén, H., ‘On the existence of electromagnetic-hydrodynamic waves’,
Arkiv. f. Mat. Astron. Fysik, 29B, no. 2, 7 pp. (1942); Cosmical electrody-
namics, Oxford University Press (1950).
[18] Davidson, P.A., An introduction to magnetohydrodynamics, Cambridge
University Press (2001).
[19] Catlow, R., Burke, P., Goodfellow, J., Tildesley, D. & Wilson, M. (eds.),
‘New science from high performance computing’, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc.
London A360, 1073-1294 (2002).
[20] Birkhoff, G., Hydrodynamics: A study in logic, fact and similitude,
Princeton University Press (1960).
[21] Thomas, J. Meurig, ‘Predictions’, Notes Rec. Roy. Soc. London 55, 105-
117 (2001).

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20.

Vicuña 18-07-2003 15:00 Pagina 267

SCIENCE NEVER ENDS:

Does science have an end?

The spiraling advances in our knowledge of the natural world appear to

268 RAFAEL VICUÑA

SCIENCE NEVER ENDS: A NEW PARADIGM IS BEING BORN IN BIOLOGY 269

A journey through the central dogma of molecular biology

270 RAFAEL VICUÑA

SCIENCE NEVER ENDS: A NEW PARADIGM IS BEING BORN IN BIOLOGY 271

272 RAFAEL VICUÑA

The Functional Genome

SCIENCE NEVER ENDS: A NEW PARADIGM IS BEING BORN IN BIOLOGY 273

value paradox. Although today we correlate this phenomenon with the

274 RAFAEL VICUÑA

as that published in Science magazine by the biotech company Celera,13

SCIENCE NEVER ENDS: A NEW PARADIGM IS BEING BORN IN BIOLOGY 275

a single gene, it is certainly evident in the case of characteristics of multi-

276 RAFAEL VICUÑA

Science has no end

The biologist Adam Wilkins, after examining the influence of Mendel,

SCIENCE NEVER ENDS: A NEW PARADIGM IS BEING BORN IN BIOLOGY 277

DISCUSSION ON THE PAPER BY VICUÑA

CABIBBO: Nanotubes, etc.

CABIBBO: I tend to agree.

RAO: This seems to be wrong in all these cases.

VICUÑA: Well, at the begining of my talk I mentioned the book by Paul

DISCUSSION ON THE PAPER BY VICUÑA 279

CABIBBO: Individual people may become tired of making experiments,

THE UNIQUE AND GROWING

If we are to define and refine the cultural values of science in relation

THE UNIQUE AND GROWING INFLUENCE OF THE NEUROSCIENCES 281

282 ROBERT J. WHITE

world’s population, are! It is imperative that we work to eliminate poverty

THE UNIQUE AND GROWING INFLUENCE OF THE NEUROSCIENCES 283

284 ROBERT J. WHITE

(fMRI) scans, generally provide recordings of changes in regional cerebral

THE UNIQUE AND GROWING INFLUENCE OF THE NEUROSCIENCES 285

cal-neurological area will become very important. Its beginning can be

DISCUSSION ON THE PAPER BY WHITE

WHITE: Well, the difficulty is that in so many ways we have a great

CABIBBO: Well, if I may say something as a physicist, it might be that the

DISCUSSION ON THE PAPER BY WHITE 287

WHITE: A chain reaction, yes. But the simple thing, as I mentioned, is

SCIENTIFIC CULTURE AND THE TEN STATEMENTS OF JOHN PAUL II 289

1. THE TEN STATEMENTS OF JOHN PAUL II

1.1. Error and Forgiveness – The First Statement

290 ANTONINO ZICHICHI

1.2. Science and Faith – The Second Statement

SCIENTIFIC CULTURE AND THE TEN STATEMENTS OF JOHN PAUL II 291

1.3. Science and Technology – The Third Statement

We live in a culture that attributes to pure scientific research responsi-

292 ANTONINO ZICHICHI

1.4. Dangers of Technology and Scientific Truth – The Fourth Statement

In a message to the WFS, John Paul II says:

SCIENTIFIC CULTURE AND THE TEN STATEMENTS OF JOHN PAUL II 293

1.5. Missiles and the Heart of Man – The Fifth Statement

To the scientists of Erice engaged in the study of how to overcome the

1.6. Scientific Voluntariate – The Sixth Statement