MARGINALIA
Storied Theory
Science and stories are not only compatible, they're inseparable, as shown by Einstein's classic 1905 paper on the photoelectric effect
Roald Hoffmann
Science seems to be afraid of storytelling, perhaps because it
associates narrative with long, untestable yarns. Stories are
perceived as "just" literature. Worse, stories are not
reducible to mathematics, so they are unlikely to impress our peers.
This fear is misplaced for two reasons. First, in paradigmatic
science, hypotheses have to be crafted. What are alternative
hypotheses but competing narratives? Invent them as fancifully as
you can. Sure, they ought to avoid explicit violations of reality
(such as light acting like a particle when everyone knows it's a
wave?), but censor those stories lightly. There is time for
experiment—by you or others—to discover which story
holds up better.
The second reason not to fear a story is that human beings do
science. A person must decide what molecule is made, what instrument
built to measure what property. Yes, there are facts to begin with,
facts to build on. But facts are mute. They generate neither the
desire to understand, nor appeals for the patronage that science
requires, nor the judgment to do A instead of B, nor the will to
overcome a seemingly insuperable failure. Actions, small or large,
are taken at a certain time by human beings—who are living out
a story.
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