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Narratives of Science

Robert Kanigel Thomas Levenson Alan Lightman: May 7, 2005; Running Time: 1:27:05

About the Lecture

About the Lecture

Robert Kanigel poses the central question of this panel: “The storytelling express is leaving the station. Do we want to jump aboard, or under some circumstances, stay where we are?” Science writing has matured as a discipline and genre, and for many writers, this means telling a story with what Kanigel describes as “a narrative arc: a cannon propelling you through a text, because of readers’ eagerness to know what’s happening next.” This implies some kind of linear movement, whether the writer focuses on “the smallest atomic unit” or a larger canvas. But Kanigel wonders if “there are circumstances when we don’t want stories.”

Thomas Levenson responds, “You can go a long way down the path of understanding science as a human activity without getting a story.” He offers the example of a writer who keeps a diary of a year spent in a laboratory -- what Levenson describes as “science travelogues.” But from his early experiences as a journalist, Levenson has found that “Science produces a certain kind of knowledge, but the activity of science takes shape within and is shaped by the world beyond science.” So he brings an historical, interpretative method to bear on his subjects, including Einstein. Says Levenson, “You get to make meaning out of the story you want rather than asking people to extract meaning out of a happenstance of facts.”

Alan Lightman ponders the role of science in novels, theatre and film. He offers several examples of “gripping and suspenseful” discussions of science within narratives, such as Michael Ondaatje’s novel, The English Patient and Michael Frayn’s play, Copenhagen. These authors avoid the didactic with a “motor that drives us through discussion.” But the very popular genre of science biography proves trickier to propel successfully. “In science, it’s more of a challenge to intertwine work with life because life deals with the inanimate,” says Lightman.

Lecture Details

Location: Bartos Theater

About the Speakers

Robert Kanigel

Professor of Science Writing

Thomas Levenson

Professor of Science Writing, and Director, MIT Graduate Program in Science Writing Documentary producer

Thomas Levenson recently published Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World's Greatest Scientist. He is also author of Einstein in Berlin; Measure for Measure: A Musical History of Science; and Ice Time: Climate, Science, and Life on Earth.

His television documentaries include Origins: Back to the Beginning (NOVA); Building Big: Domes (PBS); and Einstein Revealed (NOVA). He has earned the Peabody Award (shared), New York Chapter Emmy, and the AAAS/Westinghouse award. His articles and reviews have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The Boston Globe, and Discover, among others.

Alan Lightman

Adjunct Professor of Humanities

Alan Lightman is a novelist, essayist, physicist, and educator. He received his A.B. degree in physics from Princeton University in 1970, and his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1974.

From 1974 to 1976, Lightman was a postdoctoral fellow in astrophysics at Cornell. During this period, he began publishing poetry in small literary magazines. He was an assistant professor of astronomy at Harvard from 1976 to 1979 and from 1979 to 1989 a research scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

In 1989, Lightman was appointed professor of science and writing, and senior lecturer in physics, at MIT. From 1991 to 1997, he headed the Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies at MIT. In 1995, he was appointed John E. Burchard Professor of Humanities at MIT. In 2001, he resigned this position to allow more time for his writing and became an adjunct professor.

About the Host