A Scientist's Choice
By E. N. da C. ANDRADE THE question put to me is: If I were starting—presumably as a research student—today, what branch of science or what particular field of research would I choose? If / were starting again : that means, I presume, a man with ■ my particular disposition, abilities and disabilities, likes and dislikes. I am not asked what I should advise a student of today to do, nor would even that be a question admitting a straight answer, for quite clearly I should have to find out the young man's inclinations before I could give him counsel.
Well, then; here I am, a young man of the sort that I was, desperately interested in learning of all kinds, thinking the scholar's life above all things desirable, longing to be a student to the end, with a love for experimenting and actually handling the apparatus of experiment, with no thought of how to make money or of what age might bring to one foolish enough not to devote a set part of his time to the serious business of life, the acquisition of adequate—preferably more than adequate —means. I must suppose, presumably, that I could embark without being influenced by the fact that whereas, when I was actually young, a successful academic career ensured a com- fortable period of seniority in which to put together and com- plete the results of one's researches, today it is the path to an enforced retirement and an ignoble penury. This I either do not know or do not want to know. I elect, then, for an academic career—Gott hill nzir, ich kann nicht antlers.
The ineluctable spirit once more says to me that physics holds a_ midway place between the too great aridity, for my temperament, of pure mathematics and the too imprecise and instinctive biological sciences. This, perhaps, puts me in a wrong light and would seem to express an indifference to, a patronising attitude towards, mathematics and biology which I am very far from feeling : it actually means nothing more than that I do not feel, intellectually and emotionally, well equipped for a main interest in these studies. Now in physics today there are many new branches where huge and expensive pieces of apparatus—let us call them cyclotronia—and teams of experts are the rule. This kind of work has what is now called glamour for many. I see the attraction of being master, or one of a number of masters, of so mighty a machine, but I will turn to something where I can be independent of so powerful a servant and his whims. Cyclotronia can be sullen servitors.
The new astronomy, the detection and interpretation of radio signals from space, is, for me, one of the most fascinating fields of study. It is novel, it is full of simple problems of the first importance. Here, again, I must not assume that as a young man, or a somewhat older one, I should have the good fortune to be allowed to /erect a radio telescope. I could, only hope to be an attendant on the master machine, with nothing of my own, with nothing that I could play with in the odd hours such as those in which, long ago, I used to wander at night into the laboratory at Heidelberg.
The study of the atomic nucleus and its ways, in one form or another, is a subject which I have seen grow from its beginnings. Before the First World War, that is, before the end of civilisation, the apparatus. for nuclear research con- sisted of a few glass tubes, a pinch of powder and a cheap microscope : now there are still pieces of apparatus other than cyclotronia used in this field, complicated indeed, but still to be mastered by a bright young man. The problems are of great importance; the possibilities of finding something that will be fundamental for the future—how, let us not inquire—are always there. The competition is fierce and most of the corn- ,.° petitors do not win a prize. I am tempted, but a little afraid of I know not what.
Extreme cold—now there is a fascinating subject. By modern methods of the greatest ingenuity it is possible to approach the absolute zero of temperature, the limit beyond which passage is impossible, with comparatively simple apparatus. At these confines many kinds of matter show extraordinary properties. Here is a field where the old type of experimental ingenuity has free play, where a man can have his *own table full, where almost anything can happen, where lucky chance, labour, learning and imagination—without which discoveries are seldom made—may bring a great dis- covery, one of those that amaze by their simplicity and astonish that they have never been suspected before. Perhaps Simon will have me at Oxford.
A moment. One of the puzzles of the borders of absolute zero is the behaviour of liquid helium, extraordinary behaviour quite unlike that of normal liquids. But what is really known of the explanation of the properties of ordinary liquids? Very little. Gases are very well understood. Many of the properties of solids are satisfactorily explained. The liquid state is still a puzzle. What really happens at melting and why? What do we know of the way in which liquids conduct heat? In fact, what general explanation have we of the physical pro- perties of comparatively simple liquids, let alone collections of complex molecules? Such questions have at the present time, short answers. Here, then, is a subject where a tableful of apparatus, most of it comparatively cheap, if properly put together and applied to well-chosen material, may lead to something really new, something exciting, to make one laugh. Here is something at which I, as a young man, can work by day and to which I can occasionally go in the dark, after dinner, switch on the light and enjoy myself. I may not, of course, find out anything important, but I can see where I am going; there is a chance that, if I am good, something real will turn up. In any case, I shall do no harm. I'll work, then, on the physics of liquids, their straightforward properties. But, preserve us, that is just what I have been doing from time to time in my past life, when not interrupted by wars, calamity, destruction and variety of evil chance ! I always hoped that I was going to have a little leisure; I really persuaded myself that if I were only let alone I could do something. And now I'm merely asking 'that I can begin again, let alone all the other fields in which I have played, and have another chance. And that is what most men ask.
So now I am back where I started, But, God bless me, I fear that I am going to make all my mistakes over again, to be in too great a hurry to get sometiling done, to be impatient of bungling obstruction, to express too plainly a dislike of obliquity, and, by love of learning, to be lured from the path that alone leads to conditions where one can indulge that love. It is applied psychology that I need. Wash it all out. I will be an applied psychologist, with applied economics as my Nebenfach; my subsidiary subject.
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