{"id":14189,"date":"2018-08-27T16:07:54","date_gmt":"2018-08-27T14:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.embl.de\/?p=14189"},"modified":"2024-03-22T10:59:37","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T09:59:37","slug":"the-usefulness-of-useless-knowledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/events\/the-usefulness-of-useless-knowledge\/","title":{"rendered":"The usefulness of useless knowledge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 1878, Dutch chemist Jacobus Henricus van \u2019t Hoff gave a lecture titled \u2018Imagination in Science\u2019. In it, van \u2019t Hoff described his researches into the biographies of more than 200 famous scientists, looking for signs of artistic inclinations among them, which he considered a sign of a healthy imagination. He also looked for evidence of a diseased imagination, such as an interest in superstition or spiritualism, or a tendency towards insanity. In this category, van \u2019t Hoff placed some of science\u2019s biggest names, including Amp\u00e8re, Davy, Descartes, Leibniz, and Newton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s an example that theoretical physicist Robbert Dijkgraaf uses in his Science and Society Forum seminar, on the \u2018Usefulness of Useless Knowledge<\/a>\u2019. When I speak to him after the seminar, Dijkgraaf emphasises again the importance of imagination and curiosity in science \u2013 along with the deadening effect that education can sometimes have, by encouraging people to think in established ways. \u201cOur whole education is a process of confrontation between our imagination and the reality of established facts,\u201d he says. \u201cI think the greatest scientists have such an intense curiosity that they\u2019re not discouraged by the current practice of the field and they push the boundaries of knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Art and science<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This effect of education is something Dijkgraaf himself is familiar with. While completing his undergraduate studies in physics, he became disillusioned with the way the subject was taught and began taking more and more time to pursue another of his interests: painting. \u201cAt some point my wife said, \u2018Robbert, I see you painting all day and I don\u2019t see you doing any calculations. Perhaps you\u2019re doing the wrong thing,\u2019\u201d he explains. Realising she was right, he ended up spending two years studying art at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was only after taking some time away from physics that his interest in the subject revived. \u201cI still remember the day I walked into a bookstore and felt, \u2018Wow, I can read a physics book again!\u2019\u201d says Dijkgraaf. Despite returning to physics, he\u2019s clear how much the experience of studying art has helped him. \u201cThis detour through art school was actually a short cut in my development as a researcher,\u201d he says. One thing he discovered was the importance of practising his craft, for example by making sketches. \u201cThe important thing is not so much whether the sketches are good or bad, it\u2019s that you did the sketches,\u201d he explains. That same need to experience the process and do things for yourself applies also in physics. \u201cI discovered that you have to learn a topic yourself, instead of going through a book and following an argument. It\u2019s like I can give you instructions for how to walk somewhere, but if you walk the route yourself then you know it and you never forget.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If it\u2019s important for your field and the way you think, it will impact the world<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Dijkgraaf \u2013 who currently directs the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, US \u2013 has recently written a companion essay for a reissue of \u2018The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge\u2019: a 1939 essay by another director of the Institute for Advanced Study, Abraham Flexner. In his essay, Flexner sets out the case for curiosity-based research. Not only does it advance human knowledge \u2013 an important goal in itself \u2013 but it also generates transformative ideas and technologies, leads to the development of new tools and techniques, brings together the best minds, drives innovation, and acts as a public good. In his seminar, Dijkgraaf cites research indicating that the GDP of a country increases with increases in research spending. \u201cThe best grant in the world has been the one that the National Science Foundation gave to Stanford University, to two young graduate students who were working on this new search algorithm in the digital library,\u201d he says. \u201cThey were the founders of Google, and this less than $5 million grant led to a company that\u2019s now close to a trillion in valuation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Useless useful knowledge<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An important example Dijkgraaf gives of the usefulness of useless knowledge is the discovery of superconductivity, made by the Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes in 1911. Kamerlingh Onnes realised the importance of laying the groundwork for future discoveries, rather than seeking immediate returns. \u201cWhen he became a professor in Leiden in the nineteenth century, he didn\u2019t actually build a lab, he built a lab assistants\u2019 school,\u201d explains Dijkgraaf. \u201cHe started a school for young boys at that time \u2013 ten-year-olds, twelve-year-olds \u2013 to be trained in glassblowing and all kinds of techniques, so that ten years later he would have the best lab assistants in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A little over a century after Kamerlingh Onnes\u2019s discovery, superconductivity is used in technologies as diverse as maglev trains and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners. MRI has a variety of clinical applications, and is often used by neuroscientists to measure brain activity. \u201cI could argue that the whole field of modern neuroscience wouldn\u2019t have happened without superconductivity,\u201d says Dijkgraaf. Superconducting magnets are also important components in particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider, where the Higgs boson was discovered. It\u2019s a scenario Dijkgraaf describes as \u201cthe uselessness of the usefulness of useless knowledge\u201d \u2013 a technological application of a fundamental discovery being used to make new fundamental discoveries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his own field of theoretical physics \u2013 where discoveries are not always easy for the public to grasp \u2013 Dijkgraaf is eloquent about what an important discovery means. \u201cOften it\u2019s that you feel this is a deep idea, in some sense it explains a lot with a little, it travels far, it reaches many other ideas. The passion you have for this deep concept is in some sense about its usefulness,\u201d he explains. \u201cI think any fundamental breakthrough in science is important. Almost by definition, if it\u2019s important for your field and the way you think, it will impact the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Einstein\u2019s piano<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As our interview comes to an end, I return to the subject of van \u2019t Hoff and his studies of scientists who also had a deep interest in the arts. I\u2019m curious to know whether Dijkgraaf \u2013 amid all his other commitments \u2013 still finds time for painting. \u201cYes, I do!\u201d he says, laughing. \u201cI love art, I also love music \u2013 I play a lot of music \u2013 and I like to write. I feel the mental distance between doing research and painting or playing music is very small.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My final question \u2013 \u201cWhat instrument do you play?\u201d \u2013 might well be considered a useless one. What, of any significance, do I hope to learn from it? But then Dijkgraaf tells me that he plays flute and piano, and that one of the pleasures of his job as director of the Institute for Advanced Study is that he has Einstein\u2019s grand piano in his living room \u2013 the Bechstein piano that was shipped over from Einstein\u2019s Berlin apartment when he came to Princeton in 1933.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact that Robbert Dijkgraaf gets to play music on Einstein\u2019s grand piano might not be especially useful, but somehow it\u2019s still the kind of thing you feel better for knowing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Theoretical physicist Robbert Dijkgraaf discusses the importance of curiosity-based research<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":14195,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,17593],"tags":[697,92,60],"embl_taxonomy":[],"class_list":["post-14189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-people-perspectives","tag-art","tag-event","tag-science-and-society"],"acf":{"article_intro":"

Theoretical physicist Robbert Dijkgraaf discusses the importance of curiosity-based research<\/p>\n","related_links":[{"link_description":"","link_url":""}],"article_sources":false,"vf_locked":false,"featured":false,"color":"#007B53","show_featured_image":false,"field_target_display":"embl","field_article_language":{"value":"english","label":"English"},"source_article":false,"in_this_article":false,"press_contact":"None","article_translations":false,"languages":""},"embl_taxonomy_terms":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe usefulness of useless knowledge | EMBL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Robbert Dijkgraaf \u2013 current director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, US \u2013 reflects on the value of curiosity-based research\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/events\/the-usefulness-of-useless-knowledge\/\" \/>\n<meta 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