‘On the Nature of Things’

On the Nature of Things. This is the English translation of the name of this column, De Rerum Natura. Readers repeatedly ask why not just call it the former, followed by so many other questions on why this column deals with stuff so different from traditional newspaper columns, and why devote this weekly space on thoughts on creatures, the origin of the universe, on scientific facts and imagination, and nature reflections. This week’s column will try to answer some of those questions.

Q: Why the Latin title De Rerum Natura?

A: De Rerum Natura, the name of this column, was not chosen to be snobbish or to deliberately exclude reading minds not given to Latin. The title is taken from a poem by Lucretius, a Roman poet who lived from circa 99 to circa 55 BC. It was a poem noted for its exceptional clarity in language and reasoning in exploring the nature of things. The original columnist of De Rerum Natura, a physicist, was only able to write 11 weekly columns before he passed away in June 2002. I took over immediately from there. This is the 75th column since then. The specific verses of Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura that inspired the birth of this column are below:

For just as children tremble and fear all
In the viewless dark, so even we at times
Dread in the light so many things that be
No whit more fearsome than what children feign,
Shuddering, will be upon them in the dark.
This terror then, this darkness of the mind,
Not sunrise with its flaring spokes of light,
Nor glittering arrows of morning can disperse,
But only Nature’s aspect and her law.
Wherefore the more will I go on to weave
In verses this my undertaken task.

Q: What is the reason behind this column?

A: To try to dispel superstition and provide a perspective of science that is closer to the newspaper-reading public. Chimps and humans are almost 99 percent genetically the same, but that one percent accounts for all the literature, the sciences and the arts. This column also arose out of the scientist’s and science writer’s frustration with public life being so devoid of scientific reasoning and insights, when it is available to us for free given that science, along with the arts, is one of the greatest human endeavors and it affects ALL aspects of our lives. It also wants to give space to scientific insights usually marginalized in national discussions in a culture dominated and saturated by politics and entertainment. We have a single-page, weekly science section in only a few broadsheets in the country about the nature of the world we ALL live in but we devote entire sections and headlines on the personal lives of celebrities whose lives are of no consequence to our learning as human beings unless you are mediocre enough to pattern your entire lives or minds after theirs. The personal lives of celebrities, I think, can be interesting but not to the point of sacrificing more important things for your mind’s pleasure. After all, you read for your mind. You have this one shot at being alive and learning as much as you can. This writer finds it puzzling to write and read that much about the personal lives of celebrities. The consummate focus on the inconsequential – this is what any thoughtful column is trying to veer away from.

Q: Does the column accept suggestions on topics?

A: The column accepts suggestions, as well as questions and comments. It, however, does not promise that it will expound on any topic suggested. Science column-writing is not science journalism or reporting where the columnist goes in and out of topics looking like thunder. Science news you can get on the Web or even around this column. This column tries to weave a perspective around a scientific idea that may be current news or in the history of science and try to relate it closer to our lives. The writer of this column also does not relish the thought that she will turn into some kind of "science and nature police" where she will be asked to answer trivia and be under the delusion that she is larger than life or smarter just because she can answer certain things about science and nature. Unlike in politics, religion, economics or show business, the natural sciences are clear and convincing that no one/nothing is larger than life and it is sheer folly to think so. This column writer is also not given to blurting out isolated facts about nature since the point of the column is to point out connections. The point of writing a science column is the writer also gets this weekly chance herself to understand an aspect of nature and share it. She considers it a bonus that she is able to connect with minds through it, too.

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