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Join date : 2014-02-24
real life is sometimes funniest
There is a funny story about the theoretical physicist and mathematician Theodor Kaluza, of Kaluza-Klein fame. It is usually argued that any new theory must be confirmed by experiment. But some theoreticians have the opposite opinion - that experiments are meaningless unless backed up by good theory. Kaluza was definitely in the second camp. He was also a non-swimmer, but in order to prove his point about the power of theoretical knowledge, he claimed that he could learn to swim from reading a book. So in his thirties he read up on swimming, and one day without any lessons, he jumped in the deep end and sure enough started swimming.
I thought the story so hilarious that I had to check it out - and it is true . I came across the Kaluza anecdote in the book "Faster than the speed of light" (2003) written by a young theoretical physicist - Joao Magueijo - who proposed an alternative theory to the "accepted" model of cosmology. The book is about his struggles to have his theory gain acceptance in the theoretical physics community. Along the way he offers many anecdotes and sharp comments on scientific research. A great read.