cover image The Creative Moment: How Science Made Itself Alien to Modern Culture

The Creative Moment: How Science Made Itself Alien to Modern Culture

Joseph Schwartz. HarperCollins Publishers, $25 (252pp) ISBN 978-0-06-016788-2

The coauthor of Einstein for Beginners here continues his crusade to demystify science by placing some of its legendary ``creative moments'' in full context. Schwartz transforms textbook dates and events like Alamogordo into phenomena with real social dimensions. Most of those events are breakthroughs within his own discipline (and our most ahistoric science), physics. Schwartz means to show in these ``moments'' a progressive loss of the sense of discovery: a reification of science that parallels the persistent triumph, in larger society, of image over purpose. His seven cases, ranging from Galileo's trial by the Roman Catholic Church to the Manhattan Project, are fortuitous choices for the general reader: ``Munich 1919/Almagordo 1945'' could almost be produced as a one-act play, so closely are the forces of science and society joined in the 20-year struggle over quantum physics. Schwartz is a graceful writer and a thoughtful scientist; even unconcerned readers will find themselves brought round the back way to the idea that science is an inherently human activity whose roots in wonder must be reclaimed. (May)