Bailyn's Fables

A fable, for those who for some reason never were children, is a short story, generally full of cute anthropomorphic woodland animals who have misadventures and finish the story either dead or having learned a lesson or moral.  It turns out that science is full of these stories, admittedly minus Benjamin the Bunny or whoever. These are stories that, generally speaking, describe the process of some discovery or event, but upon closer scrutiny, turn out to have an element of artistic license, as it were. While this might piss the scientific historians off somewhat, they still serve a purpose. The point is not that the story is an accurate depiction of events so much as it is a lesson, a vivid illustration of how to behave.

It is in these posts therefore that I will discuss some of these scientific fables, and while noting the morals, will perhaps delve somewhat into the truth of things.

I should explain that the name I have chosen for this series is from the Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Yale University, Charles Bailyn, from whom I will have stolen a great number of these fables. He was first brought to my attention mid 2011 when I was pointed in the direction of a number of free online lectures. Never one to pass up either free things or learning, I downloaded a number of these, one series of which was fronted by this Bailyn fellow. I quickly was impressed by his teaching style. So many lecturers I have found to be stiff and awkward in front of a large group of people, but he managed to sound enthusiastic, interested, and at times that rare but oh so important of things, genuinely amusing. But most importantly I found that I was learning, and taking much more out of it than I ever had at college.

This post turned into something of a tribute up there. I think I'll leave it like that, only adding sincere thanks to Professor Bailyn, should he stumble his way here one day after Googling his own name or something. I thoroughly enjoyed your lectures, and greatly look forward to going into even greater depth when I get to university myself.

Ah look, we're back on topic.  From the first lecture, he started talking about these fables of science, and as I am ever one to seek the truth of things, I quickly jumped on the idea to seek the truth behind the stories, to compare and contrast. This will just be one area of this new, mildly more structured blog. I shall be posting the first fable not long after I post this. See you there.