SCIENTIFIC VISUALIZATION

Stanislaw Ulam, speaking in Los Alamos in 1944.

“I found out that the main ability to have was a visual, and also an almost tactile, way to imagine the physical situation, rather than a merely logical picture of the problems. One can imagine that subatomic world almost tangibly, and manipulate the picture dimensionally and qualitatively, before calculating more precise relationships.”

Ulam is generally credited with making a significant scientific contribution to the hydrogen bomb. The Teller-Ulam invention was a significant scientific breakthru, and without it, the hydrogen bomb would not be possible.

It will be helpful if we can set aside for a moment the horrible purposes for which Ulam’s contributions and insights were put to use. Instead, if we can imagine instead the incredible concentration of bright minds that Oppenheimer concentrated in Los Alamos. And many of the scientists were not attracted to the project so as to be able to kill people with the greatest efficiency known to humanity. Rather, they were attracted to the project because of the pure science.  Yet make no mistake, what we do with our talents is important.  Indeed, there is a moral dimension to what we do.  But back to the story.

In Ulam’s statement, we see his reliance on scientific visualization to help him solve his scientific problems. Our knee jerk reaction to imagining what it was like to work at Los Alamos in 1944 is a bunch of scientists working with numbers and slide rules.

Yet here we have one of the brightest scientific minds, working on a scientific problem that had not been solved, speaking like some graphic designer or architect.  He uses the words visual, tactile, picture, dimensionally and qualitatively. That’s exactly how we think. These are our words as well.

I have mentioned a few pages ago the parallels of the scientific method to the design method. And here we have greater corrboration on our theory.

1.  Dyson. “Project Orion.” Henry Holt and Company; New York. 2002. P22.