> The most difficult thing for lay people to understand about science, > Nobel laureate Murray Gell-Mann once told me after a lecture in > Portland, Oregon, is how very little scientists truly comprehend > about the basic nature of nature, how vast is our ignorance of the > fundamental reality of the cosmos.
Funny that the reviewer should quote Murray. He is the source of one of my favorite stories about my time in Santa Fe. I've already mentioned that the place was full of people who were full of Newage Self Importance; the other side of the story was that the place also had a large number of people who were just comfortable being who they were, with- out the need to focus attention on themselves and suck all the air out of a room. When I landed there I knew no one, and started hang- ing out at a little coffeehouse that was off the beaten track and thus devoid of tourists. And I got to know a sweet woman who was a poet, so we talked writing over coffee many mornings. Often her husband, an older man with a great smile, would drop by. He'd never try to dominate the conversations, never try to call attention to himself, and just joined in if he had something to add to the ongoing discussion of life, politics, and whatever else we were talking about that morning. This went on for six months or so, with me just knowing him as Murray. It wasn't until I got invited to a party at their house that I figured out that Murray was Murray Gell-Mann, Nobel Prize winner, and figured out that the word 'QUARKS' on his license plate was because he had inven- ted the term. I always loved that, that he could be like that, just content being one more person around the table, with no need to remind people of his accom- plishments or genius or anything other than his laugh. I'm not surprised at his equally humble approach to science. Unc To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
