The unity of science

Genre: Television

Year Published: 1957

Format: 16mm

Description: Physicists and biophysicists find common ground in interpreting the oscillation of a suspended spring. It is a simple piece of coiled metal which pulses over a small pool of mercury. The spring and the mercury are connected to a battery. Both scientists agree that the motion, regular and seemingly tireless, results from a design embodying the principle of “positive feedback.” From the biophysicist’s point of view, the pulsing spring is rather like the beating human heart. More and more areas of agreement common to all branches of science thus seems, as Professor LeCorbeiller puts it, “too beautiful not to be true.” And if science is one in revealing nature, will it not demonstrate that nature itself is one … animate and inanimate, spring and heart, body and tone?

Complete Record: Physicists and biophysicists find common ground in interpreting the oscillation of a suspended spring. It is a simple piece of coiled metal which pulses over a small pool of mercury. The spring and the mercury are connected to a battery. Both scientists agree that the motion, regular and seemingly tireless, results from a design embodying the principle of “positive feedback.” From the biophysicist’s point of view, the pulsing spring is rather like the beating human heart. More and more areas of agreement common to all branches of science thus seems, as Professor LeCorbeiller puts it, “too beautiful not to be true.” And if science is one in revealing nature, will it not demonstrate that nature itself is one … animate and inanimate, spring and heart, body and tone?NOTE: Two (or more) records have been merged together to create this data.