HSP 124-02
Albion College
Fall 02021
Discussion Questions for TC, Chapter 4


1. How would knowledge about the atomic hypothesis be useful in the case of an apocalypse? Are there other pieces of scientific knowledge that you think should survive in it’s place?

2. Angier calls physics the “ideal starter science” (88) and argues that it should be taught first rather than last in high schools. How would this be helpful or detrimental? How did it play into your high school education?

3. “Order, by definition, has restrictions and limitations, while disorder knows no bounds” (119). Angier is speaking about entropy here, but how do these words apply to our lives or other fields of science?

4. On page 88, Angier mentions that Leon Lederman wants for there to be a TV series to personify scientists as more than geeky stereotypes. As this book was published over a decade ago, is this still something we as a society need?

5. Given that we can't really "see" atoms and their constituent parts, is atomic physics just a remarkably robust and accurate guessing game?

6. The fundamental forces seem effectively axiomatic. Have we/are we likely to learn more about "why" they are how they are? Or will they continue to be explanations for the sake of making the entire system, both literally and metaphorically, coherent?